The Panther's soul
by Vergil Diva's chevalier
Summary: Grimmjow has been expelled from the Espada, and from Hueco Mundo. He intends to get back at them, but soon meets a stranger and as a result becomes involved in a feud more than a hundred years old. M for language and violence.
1. Midnight disturbance

This is mostly an introductory chapter. If there are a few things you don't know about in the world of Bleach, this chapter should give you all the information required.

* * *

The midnight sky in Karakura town tonight was almost completely clear. Though there were a few wisps of cloud here and there, dozens of stars, perhaps _hundreds _could be seen from a single spot. It was rather quiet out tonight, and not so much as a _snore _escaped into the city's streets as the wind blew some late-Autumn leaves along the sidewalk. There was a cool breeze coming in from the South, which had been called a bad omen occasionally by the more superstitious, those few claiming that "When the wind blows from the South, evil spirits will be summoned to earth."

Whether it was an evil spirit coming tonight, or if it was merely a lost soul, was a matter of question.

The moon was a perfect crescent, almost exactly replicating the moon of Hueco Mundo, the world of Hollows; spirits that had lost their hearts and gained a whole instead as they grew a white mask and changed into a monstrous form; losing all of what they once were. Among these lowly hollow there were a higher breed, the "leaders" of Hueco Mundo, if there were such a thing. And Amongst the lowest of these "leaders", or rather, the Menos Grande, were the Gillian; towering masses of blackness with immense power and a white-faced mask, a long pointed nose sticking straight off of its face with holes in it.

In general, these Menos Grande had little intelligence and absolutely _no _individual will. They were much akin to a massive spire of energy that only knew how to move and to release the energy. Any semblance of thought was completely beyond them. However, occasionally, this is not the case. Gillian are created when many Hollow gather together and fight and devour one another to satiate their uncommonly strong thirst for souls. As they battle they fuse together and fuse together and become the large and powerful Gillian. But when one of those Hollows has a much greater will or their powers far exceed the others, they retain their individual thought. This enables them to continue eating other _Gillian_, further increasing their power.

Once they reach a certain level, the Gillian evolves into a stronger form of Menos; an Adjuchas. These Menos Grande are much more intelligent and, while they aren't as _large _as Gillian, are _much _stronger. The ultimate goal of any Hollow desiring ultimate power is to become a Vasto Lorde; a humanoid hollow with immense powers capable of taking on an entire world on its own. Though there is _another _way to gain a vast amount of power while not evolving to the Vasto Lorde stage. This secret power is gained when a Hollow tears its mask off, thus gaining a humanoid form and a zanpakuto; a soul sword that reflects the core of their being. Quite simply, it is the source of all their power made manifest.

Hollows that remove their mask, become humanoid and gain zanpakuto are known as Arrancars. Among the very strongest of these unique beings are a group of ten individuals known as the Espada. They are given a number that signifies their strength in the group, from one to ten. One of these Arrancar has been expelled from the Espada, banished to the human world to eventually be killed by soul reapers; long-living beings that also wield zanpakuto who destroy Hollows and send souls to their new home; the Soul Society.

But he is not one to simply lay down and die. Though his body is broken and torn, his pride and determination are unbreakable. This Arrancar was ranked number 6 in the Espada; Grimmjow Jeagerjaques.

* * *

The wind suddenly picked up, as if being disturbed by some external force. What few clouds remained in the sky gathered into a large cloud of unnatural color. As soon as they had gathered, a long thin black line cut them in half, slowly opening to reveal a pitch-black space that looked like the very essence of evil. Something shot down from the space, hurtling into the street below and creating a massive tremor in the surrounding space, if only for a moment. Then the space closed and disappeared and the clouds dispersed once again, returning to their previous resting places in the sky, leaving only the crater in the street and the one who occupied it as a testament to what had just transpired.

For a few moments, the street was quiet, aside from the sound of the leaves once again being blown along the sidewalk. Suddenly the relative silence was shattered as the creator of the cavity sprung to life. His body was immediately enveloped in pain and he felt each and every one of the bruises, lacerations, fractures and burns. Among the greatest of the wounds was a dismemberment of his shoulder, which left it unusable.

His body trembled, more in pain than in anger, as he dragged the hand of the other arm through the gravel of the crater and grabbed his shoulder, scowling as he snapped it back into position. A beastly growl emanated from his throat; the man's absolute refusal to cry out in pain.

The hard chunks of rock and concrete grated at his burned flesh as he reached one arm forward to grab at a handful of it, trying to pull himself up out of the crater. He grunted as grits of stone dug into the cuts in his hands, but that only served to further drive his desire to escape this pit and he threw the previously dismembered arm up as well to pull at the sides of the crevice.

Little remained of his clothes, as most of them had been singed off when he received the burns; his hakama pants barely made it down past his knees and his jacket was barely even a tattered _vest _now. Blood dripped down from his scalp, despite the fact a lot of it had already coagulated in his hairline. The red liquid ran down his forehead and through his brow, suddenly filling half of his vision with red.

Grimmjow gnashed his teeth together, like a panther threatening to pounce. And then he brought his legs underneath his torso and did just that. The battered man lunged his way out of the gash in the road and landed on the even harder surface of the intact street that lay above it.

His ice-blue eyes glared out at the world, ignorant or stubborn to the fact that he was at his weakest and challenging anything that stood or walked to fight him. Nothing responded to the challenge, yet the intensity in his eyes didn't falter as he pulled something from his "belt"; a katana with an S-shaped silver guard as well as blue wrapping and scabbard. Against his beaten and torn condition the blade of the katana would have stood out, had it been removed from its scabbard. It had been chipped and cracked in numerous places and a normal sword would have been rendered useless by now.

But this was Grimmjow's _soul_. His _essence_. So though it was splintered and worn the shine that gleamed off it, even in the pitch black darkness of the scabbard's cover, was like that of the light shining off a panther's fangs.

The bottom of the scabbard beat its way down into the concrete as Grimmjow Jeagerjaques forced himself up first onto one knee, then onto both legs. Numerous gashes and deep bruises could be seen along his shins alone and though his legs felt as if they would burst under the strain he now put on them the blue-haired man ignored it.

"You'll…_pay _for that!" He spoke harshly, barely making the words audible, as he soon spat out blood onto the road, stepping onto it and splattering the mark into a simple red smear. Each and every one of those who had attacked him and thrown him out of Hueco Mundo would get ten times what they'd done to him back at them, and then some.

"_I'll show them who's the king." _He repeated again in his mind as he slowly made his way down the street, using his katana within its sheath as a support.

The cold breeze blowing across the street made his burns ache, but also helped revitalize him slightly, if only enough to take one extra step.

"The human world, huh? I'll make them regret not throwing me into the very depths of the Soul Society."

His words didn't seem so tough _now_, with the condition he was in. But it'd take a hell of a lot more than a few scrapes and brush burns to kill _him_. First thing was first though, he had to find somewhere where he could rest.

The human world appeared all but dead at night. And there were tons of buildings on this street _alone_. It wouldn't be difficult to find a place to go.

Grimmjow forced himself to stand up a bit straighter, as if being slouched over made him feel insulted by his own body. As his head looked up, he spotted the crescent moon in the night sky, and his eyes fixated on it.

For a moment the buildings and street vanished. As did his pain and wounds. He was walking on all fours, his tail following closely behind him as he ground his teeth together and followed the moon through the land of sand, towards his next kill.

Grimmjow quickened his pace down the street, allowing the moon to guide him to where he needed to go, just like always.


	2. Panther on the prowl

The moonlight led him down the street, like a guiding light in a dark tunnel. It might as well have been one, as Grimmjow was so unaccustomed to the world of the living that the stores around him felt little more than huge granite walls blocking him in. Suddenly, the light was extinguished, and his head snapped up to see why the moonlight had vanished. His mouth returned to normal, having morphed into a snarl, when he discovered that a cloud had simply passed over it.

As he looked back down, however, Grimmjow noticed a store with its lights still on down the street. If he got lucky it'd be a food-store. They were supposed to have those here in the human world. If he'd seen one on the way here the man would have simply broken into the store and ate the food within, but he hadn't.

Once again the bloodied man quickened his pace, moving faster and faster step by step as he used his katana for support until his legs could handle the full strain themselves. Walking on the street with bare feet was no big deal, but the wind blowing itself through his larger wounds and chilling his bones _was_. The wounds would heal. That didn't really matter. But one of his ribs was exposed slightly, and when the wind blew against it he felt the weirdest feeling he'd ever gotten.

Soon he made his way into the blanket of light the store sprawled out onto the street and looked inside.

_"Teh. Great." _He thought sarcastically, seeing that the store was a clothing place.

_"No point in whining about it." _He thought, tired of wearing long shorts and a torn-up jacket.

Grimmjow stamped forward onto the sidewalk and far enough into the light for someone inside to spot him, instantly displaying a look of intimidation.

_"That's right. Stay the hell out of my way."_

His steps came quick and hard as he walked to the glass doors of the fairy little clothes shop. He pushed open both doors with a blood-covered forearm, smearing a red stain onto the middle of each of them as he walked into the store, looking around. There were a bunch of people in the store. _Why_ he had no idea and didn't really care. Anyway, it saved him the trouble of having to look for stuff through the dark, having all these people here to keep the shop open late.

He noticed some girl wearing a uniform staring at his abdomen, as if he were supposed to be dead or something. Grimmjow scoffed when he realized the girl was staring at his hollow-hole; something every Arrancar had, just not in the same place.

"What the hell're _you _looking at?" He asked her in a gruff voice, tired of the girl gaping at him.

"D- do you need me to call a hospital or something?" She asked him in a panic.

"Just get me something to clean all this stuff off with." He told her, holding out a bleeding arm as the blood dripped down onto the tiled floor.

"Uh, r- right." She stumbled out, running off to get something.

Grimmjow walked over to some kind of rack with pants attached to it. He looked at them for a few seconds before just snatching a pair of white pants off the rack and glaring at another woman who was staring at him.

"See something you _like _dandelion head?" He growled at the blonde.

She quickly shook her head and he set his sword down next to him, making sure he and it were still in contact as he tore off his old torn-up pants and dragged on the new pair, pulling up the stupid zipper and pushing the metal button through the hole before tossing his old pants in a random direction.

Grimmjow picked up his sword again and walked over to where all the guy shirts were.

The girl emerged from the doorway she'd gone through, carrying a towel with her as he found a long-sleeved shirt with a black collar.

_"Whatever. It's not like I came to the human world to get clothes or anything." _He thought while reaching for the shirt on the rack. But as he did the girl walked over to him holding the towel and seemed to notice he'd taken the pair of pants.

"What? You got a problem?" He growled at her, tired of all these looks he was getting like he was some kind of... bum. It was ticking him off.

She backed off as he grabbed the towel and wiped it over his arms and torso, not really paying attention to anything in particular before throwing the now blood-red towel to the floor and grabbing the shirt off the rack; doing the same thing as he had done with the previous articles only not zippering or buttoning the shirt up after he got it on, only rolling up the sleeves the way he liked it.

The girl stumbled out of his way as he grabbed a pair of black shoes and socks and put them on before tying the shoes, angry that he was wasting his time doing all this crap.

When his last foot came down there was too much force behind it and it crunched into the tile floor. He didn't even bother to shrug since it was just a floor.

As he made his way towards the door, sheathed sword in hand, the girl called after him about the stuff he'd taken and the "wound" in his stomach.

Grimmjow's steps ceased.

He could feel the girl's complaints get caught in her throat, and felt her hesitate. This happened just as the doors to the store flew open, a bunch of mask-wearing guys running in brandishing guns.

"Get on the _floor_! _Now_!" One of them barked, instantly causing the girl and the others to do so.

As they were sniveling on the floor Grimmjow inspected the thing that had caused him to stop moving and pulled a belt off its rack, setting his sword against the rack and unintentionally making it invisible to them.

"Hey, girl, this thing just goes through the loops, right?" He asked, his tone not showing that he cared about anything, even his own question.

The guns snapped to aim at him and the one who'd barked earlier walked over to him and stuck a revolver in his face.

"I _told _you to get _down_! Now do it or I'll blow a hole in your face- agh!"

He cut the man off as his free hand grabbed the barker's face and the other one shoved the gun out of his own.

The revolver went off and he covered the man's whole face with his hand, its fingers digging into his temples and beneath his cheekbones.

"Get out of my face and shut the hell up."

The gun went off again and he tightened his hands once more in response, the man's whole body suddenly going limp.

He frowned as the revolver fell from the man's hand, which now lay unmoving down by his side.

"Huh? That's all you've _got_?"

The man didn't answer.

Grimmjow scoffed as he released his hold and allowed man to fall to the ground, not getting up.

"Fine, whatever." He remarked, not caring anymore and bringing the belt up.

"Frank! You son of a-"

The blue-haired man dropped the belt and grabbed the katana, a huge shark-like smirk erupting onto his face as he glared at them, feeling their desire to fight.

"Now _that's _what I'm _talking _about!" He yelled as gunfire erupted in the store, shooting the clothes behind him to shreds and taking out a few lights in the process. The room dimmed as a result as dozens of round casings found their way to the floor.

Finally, the last of the guns went silent and the men scanned the room from their position, reloading.

"Is _that _all you know how to _do_?! Pull a _trigger_?!" A voice growled angrily at them from the dark space behind them all.

One of the men turned around just in time to get hooked in the jaw, a loud crunching sound cracking into the room as the punch sent him away, crashing into a rack and knocking both him and it over to the floor.

"Come on! Fight like warriors! Not a bunch of cowards!"He yelled, making them all back away and aim their guns at him.

"That's it, huh? You guys are pathetic."

Fire erupted from their guns again once more, but Grimmjow ran around the line of fire faster than they could react and spun, kicking a man into a wall and stomping a leg downinto the floor for balanca before rushing forward and ramming an elbow into the next man's lower ribs, breaking them all with a loud crunch. He fell forward, dropping the gun as he fainted in mid-air, the others rearing around to aim their guns at his abuser.

Grimmjow kicked out, knocking a gun from one of the men's fingers as he spun around to another's back, reaching up underneath his arm as he leaned forward and chucked the man into the same wall he'd just kicked the other one into.

One of the men finally tried to punch him, but only succeeded in getting pushed out of one of the ceiling-high windows and landing on the sidewalk headfirst.

The last one stumbled for the revolver the first guy had dropped and fired three shots wide and one through his hollow-hole as the gun clicked empty.

As he approached the man who'd fallen to the ground, still clutching the revolver, his shadow enveloped the person, making him seem twice as big to the coward as he actually was.

He leaned forward, snarling at him with teeth that were sharper than normal and glaring at him with a piercing, life-stealing glare.

"Boo!"

"Ahhhhh!!!!!" The man yelled, running away and tripping on the broken window's frame, falling into the street and crawling to the other side.

"Heh. Bunch of pushovers." He spoke before spitting on the ground and walking over to the belt, picking it back up.

None of the guys who were left in the shop stood up again.

"Nevermind. I've got it." He told the girl while setting his katana against the rack again like before and sliding the dark-blue leather belt through the loops on his pants before finally locking the two ends together with a silver buckle; a scene of a panther on the prowl etched into it.

Everyone who'd been on the floor hesitantly rose, some looking at the men on the floor, others at him. He looked directly at the girl who'd been following him before.

"I'm taking this stuff. These guys are my payment. See ya."

With that he picked up his katana and walked over to the doors, pulling them open and stepping out onto the sidewalk, feeling better already.

"I guess the human world isn't just boring _after _all." He thought out loud as the moon revealed itself once again. He gazed up at the moon and grinned, then followed it down the street like before, searching for somewhere to rest.

* * *

Someone has mentioned in a review that there are a few inconcistencies between my story and the facts of Bleach. Though I was aware of these, I admit that it isn't covered in this chapter what those things are. For those that noticed them, however, I wanted to tell them that eventually anything that isn't understood about said issues will be explained eventually.

Everyone else just have a fun time reading, ha.


	3. The crescent moon predator

"I take it back. This world _is _boring." Grimmjow stated out loud with noticeable volume as he walked down the moonlit street.

He hadn't come across _one _other person to fight the whole way. And he must've been walking for _miles _now.

At first the man had been looking for some place to hold up until his wounds healed, but being as he was too weak to use his Sonido; instantaneous movement to another place, the man would have had to break his way into a building and run up all those stairs just to get to the top floor and reach a place of suitable height.

The road twisted every one in a while, but he followed wherever the moon led him, just like he'd always done. But unlike his days of following it around the expanse of Hueco Mundo, he didn't seem to be making it anywhere of any value.

He turned a corner, and just as he began to doubt the moon's ability to lead him the clouds once again covered it, though this time it managed to "point" at a building's door.

Grimmjow grinned as he surveyed the place. It was built differently than all the other ones. Though the other buildings used a lot of metal and stuff _this _building used a grey stone, much alike to the buildings back in Hueco Mundo. In materials anyway.

The building was longer than it was wide and stretched around three stories tall for the most part, with a bell-tower reaching about five stories. Above the old double doors, which were situated above stone _steps _were two line, one of them longer than the other and the shorter crossing over the longer high up its length.

_"Humans call that a crucifix or something. Supposed to be a symbol of some kinda religion."_ He thought while walking towards the double-doors.

"What the hell? If I can get up to the bell tower that'll be good enough for tonight."

His feet made their way up the steps until they reached the door, one raising and planting a solid kickk in the middle of the doors, cracking them and their hinges off the walls of the building and sending them flying inward to some kind of benches.

He scanned the large room, not seeing anything moving inside.

All there really was were those benches, some kind of alter and two doors, one of them located beneath the bell tower and probably leading up to it.

"Heh, simple enough." Grimmjow remarked, walking down the aisle for a few moments before deciding the hell with it, bringing himself down a bit as his heels tensed.

Then he burst off the old wood floor and flew over all the benches and stuff before landing right in front of the door, simply grinning in satisfaction.

He still had it. Cuts or not, his power was still there.

Grimmjow pushed on the door, only to find it was locked.

"Outta the way!" He told it, pressing harder and putting his shoulder into it, pushing it off its hinges and cracking it against the stone wall on the other side, missing the ladder.

Immediately the blue-haired man scaled the long wooden ladder, making sure not to get the katana that was stuck beneath his belt caught in its rungs.

The last few rungs he jumped past, landing on the dusty floor above without so much as losing his footing.

It wasn't like sleeping in a cushy bed or anything, but it was plenty high up and no one would bother him up here.

Grimmjow pulled his sheathed katana out of his belt and sat down in a corner of the stone tower, resting it against his shoulder.

His eyes closed a few minutes later, the energy he'd accumulated earlier due to necessity fading away and leaving him feeling exhausted.

He fell asleep within minutes.

* * *

His paws padded across the soft sand, the Arrancar-class Menos hunting for prey in the infinite desert of night.

Though Hollows don't really require food, they _do _require souls or enemies to feed on. And for the _Adjuchas_ there was even _greater_ motivation for them to consume an abnormal amount of souls, specifically the flesh and blood of other Adjuchas.

This motivation was twofold and had both a positive and a negative part. For one, if an Adjuchas continued to consume the bodies of other Adjuchas it had a change of proceeding to the final level in the Hollow hierarchy; the Vasto Lorde.

At the same time, if they _didn't _consume pieces of other Adjuchas often enough they would digress back into regular Gillian and would lose their individuality completely; losing the ability to become an Adjuchas again.

Because of this, many Adjuchas turned on each other, tearing their "friends" to shreds all in the name of becoming a Vasto Lorde. However, the _true _motivation behind this was _fear_; fear of becoming just anothe mindless Gillian and losing themselves. It was quite a frightening prospect, and one that led most of the Adjuchas in their daily lives.

However, at the very least, _one _of them had no fear or regressing back into a Gillian.

His sole and only motivation for consuming other Hollows was so that he could become and stronger and be the best there was.

This panther-like Adjuchas charged into every confrontation fearlessly and with an intense, murderous instinct. And though his small silver-white form led other larger Adjuchas to believe he was _weak_, it was this very misconception that awarded him many kills.

He always fought Hollow that claimed to be better and stronger than he was, and he _never _lost against them. Ultimately he became the Arrancar, and the sixth Espada no less. But since the beginning of his existence he'd always been Grimmjow Jeagerjaques.

As the panther walked across the moonlit desert, his tail staying still for the most part, only moving when he sensed something and twitching a bit, he stopped suddenly, as his ears picked up a nearby sound.

Not a second later a shadow engulfed him and a huge form descended towards the Hollow, intent on swallowing him whole.

Yet when the huge worm-like hollow crashed into the sandy ground and drew back, only sand fell from its jaws into its stomach.

Unsure of where the comparatively-tiny hollow had disappeared to, the Adjuchas worm gazed around the area, completely unaware that the very "victim" it sought stood atop its own head.

Ice-blue eyes flared and the panther bit into the top of the other Hollow's head, instantly causing it to swing from side to side in an effort to get him off it.

Yet it was to no avail and though the thing thrashed and bucked, the panther wouldn't let go, whether he hit the sand, or was swatted at by the thing's tail or if it felt like his teeth were going to be pulled out.

Ultimately the struggling slowed and became less dynamic, and it was then that the panther stole his opportunity and let himself fall off the Hollow-worm's neck, twisting in mid-air and grabbing its jugular once he'd reached underneath its neck.

Though the struggling temporarily came to a head, it was over the second his jaws had closed around its throat and he knew it.

It didn't take long before the thing died and fell lifeless to the ground.

The panther partook in the meal it had well-earned, feeling its power growing little by little as he bit and chomped and tore at the corpse, uncaring about the splashes of blood that burst out with every bite.

Within an hour the meal was finished and the dead Hollow was gone, having become part of the panther's strength.

Grimmjow moved his jaws a bit more, making sure he hadn't missed anything, and then followed the moon across the desert once more, following the moon to his next battle.

* * *

A loud clanging woke him up and startled the Arrancar enough that he actually began to draw his zanpakuto, but he quickly realized, though it didn't lessen his irritation, that it was merely the bell signaling that it was some point during the day. Probably afternoon.

The sword slid back into its sheath as Grimmjow stood up, ready to slash the bell to a million pieces and then kick them all out of the tower if it didn't shut up _now_.

It did, and he grinned.

_"Damn straight." _He thought while turning about and placing a foot up on one of the small raisings of rock that was supposed to pass for a railing.

His wounds felt better for the most part. All of them had closed, even the part where his rib had been revealed, and the fractures he'd gotten had already been set right, allowing him to move, hit and react as quick as he usually could.

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques was ready to fight at full strength again, and jumped out of the bell tower, heading towards the ground below with a battle-hungry smirk on his face.


	4. War's interlude

The alarm clock woke him up.

Sun coming through his window helped wake Ichigo Kurosaki up that much quicker.

He pulled the covers off him, slid his legs of the bed and turned alarm clock off all in one move. It was something he'd gotten to practice quite a bit over the years.

"Looks like it's another sunny day outside." He remarked, somewhat sleepily, seeing his silhouette displayed on the floor of his room.

Suddenly he heard something up above him, like a spider crawling on something that made a lot of noise.

"Goooooood mooooooorniiiiiiing Ichigooooooooooooo!" A loud yell came at him from his ceiling as the thing descended from its impossible perch on the ceiling.

Ichigo quickly stood up and moved away from the bed, allowing his father to fall onto the bed and bounce up into the air, soon caughti in his son's grasp and thrown across the room into a wall.

Instantly the man fell to his feet on the floor, in an exaggerated ninja-death-stance that looked like it belonged in a comic book.

"You're supposed to wake up at six-thirty. It's sixt-thirty-_one_." He spoke cryptically, despite the grin on his face.

"Shut up! What kind of dad clings to his son's ceiling and tries to crush him when he wakes up one minute late?!" Ichigo replied with unnecessary loudness.

"Being on time is important, Ichigo. How will you get a big hard-charging job if you're never on time?"

"Shut _up_!" He yelled before the two charged at each other.

*Five minutes of loud noises and banging around later*

The Kurosaki family sat at the table, eating their breakfast quietly; Karin ate her cereal with her eyes closed and a solemn look on her face. Yuzu was eating her _own _cereal but glanged between her father and brother nervously.

Ichigo ate normally, and as much like Karin in that he ate with his eyes closed and with a solemn face.

Meanwhile, Isshin, their father, ate _his _cereal with his face covered in band-aids.

"So, Ichigo, how's work at your school going?" Yuzu asked, trying to make conversation.

He glanced at her as he finished his cereal.

"Oh, you know. The usual. Alright I guess." He responded before drinking the remaining milk in his bowl quietly before standing up.

"Speaking of, I should probably get going."

"Yes, my son. Be sure to get to school on time. If you _don't _how will you ever get a big, hard-charging diploma-" His repeated "lecture" was cut off as a milk bowl was thrown from his face, a small layer of milk left on it as he angrily pulled the thing off.

"See ya, Karin, Yuzu." He remarked, picking up his backpack and walking towards the door.

Their home was attached to the "Kurosaki Clinic"; their father's small medical building where he treated minor injuries for other people and, more often than not due to them crashing around, _himself_.

Because the householf and the clinic were the same building his sisters and he usually tried to leave as early as possible so Isshin could open up the clinic. As he made sure to stay with his kids until they left for school.

On his way to the door, however, he heard a knock at it, and wore a somewhat curious expression as he walked over to it and opened the door.

Outside stood a man in a white suit and blue tie. His blond hair looked like it was conditioning or something each morningHe wore a smile, though Ichigo couldn't tell if it was genuine or if he just wore it like an accessory.

Still, he didn't give off a real bad vibe or anything.

"Good morning." His calm, soft voice spoke as if he'd been practicing the phrase all morning.

"I'm sorry to bother you. I know the clinic is not open yet. But I was wondering if I could speak with your father. Is he here?"

Normally if a random guy in a suit showed up to talk to dad he'd just brush by them, thinking they wanted the property or something, but it didn't feel like this man was here to buy the clinic.

"Uh, yeah, sure. Dad! Someone's at the door for you!" He spoke loudly back into the room to his father, who dropped the goofy attitude and came over to them.

"Thank you, Ichigo. How can I help you, sir?" He asked the man with a friendly smile.

"I'd like to ask you a few questions, actually. If you're not too busy." the man responded with similar friendliness.

"Not at all. Would you mind waiting at the front of the clinic for me? I'll be there in a minute then we go inside and talk there."

"Sure. I'm in no rush."

"Uh, dad," Ichigo spoke, not sure what to do.

"Go on, Ichigo. You'll be late for school."

"Oh, right. See ya later."

"It was nice to meet you." The man spoke, stepping well out of his way.

"Yeah, you too." Ichigo responded, walking by and away from the clinic, wondering who the man had been.

* * *

He jumped from roof to roof, searching for any traces of spiritual pressure he could find.

For the most part though it seemed like the strongest anyone in this town would be that they'd have enough spirit energy to _maybe see_ him.

_"What the hell? Aizen had us coming here all the time and there's barely anyone woth noticing. And it looks like those soul reapers stationed here were either withdrawn or are hiding their spiritual pressure so I can't find them." _He thought in irritation.

Either way it was a pain to find someone to fight.

He'd half-hoped that when that soul reaper Ichigo Kurosaki sensed his spiritual pressure in the world of the living he'd come running. But he never showed.

And for some reason even though he was more or less at full strength Grimmjow couldn't open a Garganta; the pathway to Hueco Mundo, he couldn't just go back there and start fighting the Espadas who'd attacked and knocked him out of Hueco Mundo.

Grimmjow ground his teeth together as the buildings and streets passed by beneath his feet at the realization that he wouldn't be able to kill all the Espadas.

Not all of them had attacked him before, but that didn't change the fact that all of the Espada, 5th and above, thought they were _better _than him. And that ticked him off more than anything.

Suddenly he sensed Ichigo's spiritual pressure nearby. It felt like he was already fighting too.

Grimmjow forgot about his musings as he smirked and quickened his pace, now heading specifically towards where he'd sensed the soul reaper's spiritual pressure.

* * *

"So, mister...." Isshin began, not sure what the man's name was.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Solomon Goldsmith. I'm from a medical corporation, actually."

"Ah, so you heard how good of a doctor Isshin Kurosaki is and wish to hire him at double the normal salary!" He joked, the two sitting down at a table in the back room of the clinic.

The man's smile turned upward for a moment, as if in humor.

"No, I'm afraid not, mister Kurosaki. Don't worry, I'm not here to _buy _you _out _either."

"Well, _that's _certainly a good thing to know. I'd have hated to welcome a man into my humble clinic if he'd intended to do such a thing."

"I understand completely. Actually..." He began, shifting into a more comfortable position in his chair.

"My questions have absolutely nothing to do with medicinal research _or _pharmaceuticals."

Isshin blinked, seeming somewhat confused.

"Then what _have _you come to talk about mister Goldsmith? I don't mean to be rude, but if I were to have a patient come into my clinic I would feel guilty not tending to them if we were talking about something unimportant."

"Please, call me Solomon. I have enough people calling me mister Goldsmith as it is." He spoke, more friendly than usual and closing his eyes for a few moments.

Isshin nodded.

"Very well, and you can call me Isshin. _So_....Solomon... what are we talking about?"

Solomon's eyes opened, revealing much less friendly and much more _serious _eyes.

"Have you ever heard of Chiropterans, Isshin?" He asked.

Isshin's expression was very sereious now as well.

"Chiropterans? You mean like _Chiroptera_? Bats?"

"In a manner of speaking. Chiropterans are in the same family as bats. Though they are exceedingly different in almost every other way."

"To be honest, I've never heard of them before. Are they a recently discovered species?"

"Not entirely." Solmon spoke, shifting somewhat again.

"You see, humans 'discovered' them back in the eighteen-hundreds. However, due to an.... accident, all of the humans who knew about Chiropterans died. Afterwards, over time, a small group of people learned of their existence again. Yet the public, in general, has absolutely no idea of their being whatsoever."

Isshin sat back in his chair, not sure where the man was going with this.

"I take it your company recovered a sample of them or something along those lines."

"Not at all. You see, only a few people in my company know about Chiropterans, and those that _do _are not the kind of people you are likely to see out on the street every day."

"I don't see where you're going with this Solomon."

He gave a quick chuckle.

"Yes, I apologize. I know it must seem as if I'm rambling on. But you see, like humans, Chiropterans fight amongst themselves. And, like humans, they _kill _one another. Though their reasons tend to be narrower than the variety in which humans find the motivation to murder one another."

He stared directly into Isshin's eyes, making sure his words went straight to the man's soul.

"But Chiropterans, though they live much longer than humans, are far fewer in number. And it is due to this exceedingly low population that they are on the brink of extinction."

Isshin's serious expression lessened significantly and a grin formed on his face again.

"Ah! I see! You'd like a donation to your organization to help protect the Chiropterans! Don't worry, no need to put on a front! I, Isshin Kurosaki, have never been one to turn down assisting endangered species! Just let me get my checkbook. What is the name of your organization again?" He asked, pushing the chair away and standing up.

"I think you misunderstand me, Isshin. You see, I _am _from a pharmaceutical company; Cynch Flech to be be specific, and I am not here for a donation. What I _am _here for is to ask for help from people like you."

Once again, Isshin's smile and carefree expression faded away.

"And what kind of people would that be?"

Solomon stared into his eyes again.

"Soul reapers."

The man's eyes widened in surprise, obviously unaware that there were other people who knew his secret.

"What?! How did you-"

"Cynch Flech is connected to other organizations as well, and altogether we have incredible clout and power. _Especially _when it comes to discovering things about others. But I am not here to blackmail you, Isshin. I simply want to know how I can get into contact with others of your kind."

"And why would you want to do that, mister Goldsmith?" He asked, switching back to formalities.

"...humans are weak..." The blond-haired man began.

"They cannot kill Chiropterans. Or at the very least, they do not know _how _to do so, let alone without going overboard and killing the entire species because of one or two 'bad apples'."

The clinic-owner was paying attention good now, and he knew that his words weren't being wasted.

"But there are Chiropterans who are like humans, and will not listen to reason or logic. All that they want to do is kill the entirety of their species. And due to certain properties that they possess, no other Chiropterans are safe when it comes to dealing with them."

"On the _other _hand...." Isshin continued for him, a certain coldness entering the room despite the fact it wasn't very cold out.

"_Soul Reapers _are superhuman in terms of strength and would be immune to whatever 'properties' you were referring to. In addition to that, they have certain abilities _themselves _that would at least make them an equal for the Chiropterans if it came to a fight."

Solomon smiled in satisfaction.

"You're a quick man, Isshin Kurosaki."

"What _I _don't understand is why you came to _me_. If you know that I haved Soul Reaper powers then you undoubtedly know that I _also _am not in _contact _with them anymore."

"Yes, I know that."

"Then why come to me?"

Solomon leaned forward, placing his hands on the table, looking down before looking back up into Isshin's eyes.

"Because you are doctor Isshin, and I knew you would understand that I cannot rely on either _humans or _chiropterans. You've experienced suffering, both on your own part, and the pain of _others_. It is not something most know; the feeling of pain at the conflict of humanity."

Isshin sat down again, listening to what he had to say, and Solomon was grateful for it.

"I was one too, a doctor, a long time ago. I was a doctor in World War two. Every day I experienced people's suffering and suffered myself, wondering _why _and _how _we could do this to each other. There were people with missing fingers, toes, arms, legs, eyes... people dying not ten feet from me. And all I could do for the victims of these atrocities was try and keep them alive and heal them. Only for them to go back out into that war and get wounded again, or killed."

He could see the sympathy, the _compassion _in the man's eyes at the knowledge that he had witnessed such things.

"And now, the same thing is happening again, but with _Chiropterans_. But this is a species that _cannot _withstand the massive casualties incurred by a war among all of its populace."

His eyes filled with determination, violent determination even.

"I _will _not simply stand by and put bandages on the wounds of the fallen this time. But I cannot stop the war on my own. Due to their similar strength and far superior numbers, if the Soul Reapers were to get involved they could be used as a _police force_, at least until the Chiropterans made peace with one another. _That _is what I wanted to ask you, Isshin Kurosaki; will you help me save an entire species from becoming extinct?"

Inside his eyes, along with the determination, was a sort of pleading hope. One that he'd thought had vanished from his soul many years ago.

The man sighed, placing one of his own hands on the table.

"You sure can make a speech, Solomon." He spoke, a grin coming back to both of them.

"I'll see what I can do. At the very least I have a friend who should be able to help you out. If I cannot find a way to contact the Soul Reapers, he should be able to help. Please come back to my clinic in a week. I'll have an answer for you."

Solomon gave him a genuine smile and bowed his head before they both stood up and he shaked the man's head in thanks and understanding.

"Thank you, Isshin. I am glad I came here."

The man hardened his grip on Solomon's hand, in reassurance.

"I am glad as well. Perhaps someday we can speak with one another over a more positive matter."

His smile grew bigger.

"I look forward to that day with all my heart and soul."

* * *

He stared down at the house with ice blue eyes. A look in them like a predator that had discovered the home of its pray.

"Found you, soul reaper."


	5. The one that got away

Thank you, errihu, for pointing out that stupid mistake of mine. It disappointed me when I went and read the chapter... and saw it looked like a gigantic carcass cut up by a thousand angry cavemen.

Anyway, I'll update again soon. The reason the update rate is so slow is when people don't review a story I assume it's not that good, so I don't put as much attention into getting its chapters going.

* * *

"….son of a- where _is _he?!" Grimmjow yelled out loud as he stood, crouched down on Ichigo's windowsill, staring into the empty room.

"This is where I sensed the spiritual pressure, and it must've been where the fight happened, but the jerk is gone!"

Just as he was about to tear the room apart in his frustration he heard a door open somewhere around the edge of the building.

His grin came back and Grimmjow leapt up off the windowsill, landing on the roof and running across it until he reached the other side, staring down at where he'd heard the noise come from.

The second he reached his perch, Grimmjow saw a car door closing down in front of the house.

"Going somewhere, Kurosaki?" He asked with a smirk as he jumped up into the air, bringing back an arm as he descended towards the fancy-looking vehicle.

He just heard the engine start as the man punched down through the front of the car and tore a piece of it out, chucking it at the ground around it as he turned, smirking, at the driver of the car.

One of his legs leapt out, pointing out like a sickle into the air as he swept it around like a scythe, cutting the whole front of the car off and rolling off the hood to face away from the vehicle.

A few seconds passed, and he heard nothing.

"What's wrong, Kurosaki? I kick your head off?" He asked over his shoulder.

For another few seconds, there was no response. Then a car door opened, an unexpected reaction, and Grimmjow turned around to see it was the _driver _who'd opened his door and got out of the car.

His grin faded away, a small frown on his face.

"Hey, where's the soul reaper?" He asked the blond man who could clearly see him. Said man closed the door of the car normally, like the top of it hadn't just been cut all the way through.

"I'm not sure which Soul Reaper you are referring to, but regardless, why are you after them?"

"What do _you _care? Just run along like a good human. Just 'cause you can see me doesn't mean you can _beat _me."

The blond walked for a few steps until he was on the other side of the hood, the two of them staring at each other across it.

"Well, I don't like to tell strangers my business, but I wish to deal with the Soul Reapers. And if one or more of them were to die they would be too preoccupied finding _you _to assist _me_."

One of his eyebrows rose.

"That so?"

"I'm afraid it is." The man remarked, closing his eyes and using a tone as if delivering bad news to someone.

"_Well _then… what're you going to do to _stop _me?"

The eyes opened.

"That's a good question."

Both of them stood silently, staring into each other's eyes as if the first one to stray their gaze would instantly perish. Then the man's left arm quickly whipped up through the air, and Grimmjow saw something like displaced air flying at him.

He instinctively brought up his arms in an "X" to block and felt, despite the hardness of his Hierro; skin that was resistant to injury, felt the "blade" of air cut a few centimeters into his forearms. It wasn't much, but it was a whole lot more than he'd _expected_.

At first the impression he'd gotten was that this guy was some sort of low-ranking Soul Reaper or something like that, but from what he could tell, he wasn't either Soul Reaper _or _a Hollow. And he _sure _as _hell _wasn't a _human_. So, it wasn't much of a surprise when, as Grimmjow brought his arms down, he asked the man what the hell he was.

"It doesn't matter." He responded passively, sending another one of those slices of air at him again, which Grimmjow _dodged _this time, only to be met by the very top of the car that _he'd _cut from the _car_. Luckily the top was just some kind of fabric with rods in it meant to hold it up, but as Grimmjow stuck out an arm with the intent of knocking it aside some kind of large blue blade cut through it, aimed at his face.

Grimmjow instantly shifted to the side, the thing only scraping a tiny cut along the brim of his nose, but realized how close he'd just gotten to getting killed without even drawing his _sword_.

"_Dammit! This guy isn't gonna kill me, no matter what he is!" _Grimmjow roared in his head as he grabbed the part of the arm, which he realized is what this was connected to, that _wasn't _sharp and turned away, throwing the man down to the ground. The second he hit it though the bastard just rolled and sprung up, facing Grimmjow with his bladed arm.

"That arm… those things made of air… what the hell _are _you!" He yelled at the man in infuriation.

The man barely regarded him.

"It doesn't really _matter_… _does_ it?"

He ground his teeth together.

"Fine, that's the way you want to play it?"

"I'm not _playing _at _all_."

"Shut up!" Grimmjow yelled as he tore one of his hands up through the air and fired a Bala; a blast of hardened spiritual pressure, at him.

A blue after-image moved around the Bala, and then came charging towards him. Despite the flashiness of the move Grimmjow knew it was just a way of moving faster than normal.

As the blade once again approached him he tossed the top of the car at him and rolled back up onto the hood of the car, aiming and firing another Bala down at where his enemy would be busy knocking the thing away.

The red shot blasted into the cement but he didn't feel it connect with the man in the suit-and-tie and wondered where he'd gone.

"Must we really keep this up _all day_?" He heard a voice ask him from the back of the car, and he turned to see the man was standing on the trunk of it.

"_You _tell _me_. _You're _the one who keeps _dodging_."

"It is, in terms of effectiveness, often _better _to dodge. Blocking allows you to be damaged, dodging gives you an into your opponent. As you've witnessed."

"Ha! You must be one of those little _sissies _who can't take a _beating_!" He taunted.

"Perhaps I am. Although, on the _other _hand, perhaps I'm _right_."

"Maybe…." Grimmjow remarked, an amused grin on his face.

"But you can't dodge forever. I'll learn how you move soon enough."

Then the man disappeared, and Grimmjow's expression went wide.

"Is that so?" He heard a passive voice say from over his shoulder, seeing that the man had once again snuck around him. The diamond-blue-blade leapt for his stomach, aiming to disembowel him, but suddenly a hand grabbed it, _his _hand.

The surprised expression was replaced with a confident, even _arrogant _one.

"Yeah, it _is_." He spoke before bringing back his other arm and punching the blonde square in the jaw, letting him fall off the hood of the car. But even though he'd gotten a hit in the guy spun slowly in mid-air, landing quietly on his feet, not a mark on him.

"It certainly appears that way. But I don't have time to stay here and play around with you. I'm sorry, but I have matters I must attend to."

"You'll 'attend' to _me_ before anything _else_!" He roared, a wild smirk on his face as he pushed off thehood with both legs, scrunching it up like a rug, and blasting into him like a cannonball. They skidded several yards, the momentum from the impact proving too strong for the man to stop for quite a while. But after several seconds he managed to cease their grinding through the ground and held Grimmjow back, who was still smirking.

"Just let me ask you one thing." The man mentioned, not even at a loss of breath.

"What's that?" He asked.

"Why are you after Soul Reapers? Is it a _personal matter_? Or are people like you in great numbers?"

"Heh, couldn't tell ya how many of us there are, but there's at least a dozen that I know about and they _all _want to kill Soul Reapers."

"I see."

"_But_…" Grimmjow interjected.

"I'm not here to fight any normal Soul Reaper. I'm here to fight Ichigo Kurosaki, and I _will _find him, and kill him for _myself_."

Momentarily the man actually showed a look of surprise, but then his face became that of adisappointed person and there was something in his eyes.

"..I understand. It's people like _you _who began all these wars."

Grimmjow finally separated from the man.

"Ha! Don't make me laugh! I'm just a guy who loves to fight! I'm not on _anyone's _side but my _own_!"

"Exactly." He spoke, looking directly into his eyes again.

"You are nothing but a living machine of destruction. You know nothing about what your destruction does to others; both your opponents and people who had nothing to do with your battles."

A shrug was his only response to that.

"Don't get so serious about it. Just enjoy the fight while it lasts."

Then the blade on the man's arm disappeared.

"I've _never _enjoyed fighting. But as things are, it seems eventually it will be necessary to _fight you_."

Grimmjow tilted his head slightly.

"_Eventually_? Who are _you _kidding? You're going to have to fight me right _now_!"

But before he could so much as move a muscle, the man was gone.

The blue-haired man instantly looked all around him, thinking it was another sneak-attack, but soon discovered he was nowhere to be found.

A few moments of silence passed, then he stomped into the ground.

"Dammit! Coward!" He roared, soon discovering there was no point in anymore taunts; he was long gone and Grimmjow had no idea which direction he'd gone in.

It was the first time Grimmjow had actually _lost _his _prey_.

"Oh well." He spoke with a sigh, turning back towards Kurosaki's house.

But as he did so the man spotted something on the trail of skid-marks they'd made along the street. The small white square greatly contrasted the worn, black ruggedness of the skid marks all around it and he walked over to it, picking up the paper card. On the face-up side it looked normal. But when he flipped it _over _Grimmjow saw a name and _address _on the other side.

"_Solomon Goldsmith, CEO of Cinq Fleches pharmaceuticals. 1541 Azul Drive." _Is how it read.

The smirk erupted onto Grimmjow's face again.

"Nice to _meet_ you, _Solomon_! Let's get together _real _soon! I look _forward_ to it!"


	6. Maneuver

Business was going slow in the office of Solomon Goldsmith, CEO of Cinq Fleches pharmaceuticals.

It wasn't that he was an incompetent Chief Executive Officer, quite the opposite, he'd been one of the primary causes it had erupted from a single pharmacy into the worldwide distributor of pharmaceuticals it was today. But his thoughts, as sometimes was the case, were receiving more attention from his mind than his work. That didn't keep him from skimming over papers and writing his signature on the ones he approved, but he wasn't doing it nearly as fast as usual.

He'd suspected that Isshin Kurosaki would no longer be in contact with the governing body of the Soul Reapers, but he hadn't expected that his son would be a Soul Reaper. Further, he had no idea what that man had been. And there were at least a dozen more? Possibly as strong as him? They didn't have the time to go searching for them while simultaneously defending themselves from the Red Shield, what few members remained of it anyway.

His entire strategy revolved around using the assistance of the Soul Reapers as a way to force the two sides from fighting each other. After all, the way things were going now, most, if not all of their species would be dead within the year.

"But if people like that man are currently in conflict with the Soul Reapers they certainly won't have the opportunity or the interest to turn their energies towards our problems. Which means…"

He stopped his thoughts as there was a knock at the door. It was easy to tell who it was; two precise, confident strokes, delivered exactly a second apart from each other and placed exactly in the same location both times.

"Solomon, are you busy?" Came the deep voice of his older brother from the other side of the door.

"No. Nothing important enough to get in the way of family matters anyway." He remarked passively, the expensive door to his office opening soon after. The office was "perfect" in terms of style. They'd had one of the most famous architectural designers, both external and internal, design the headquarters of Cinq Fleches pharmaceuticals, and it looked very modern, yet fancy. But as far as these two men were concerned, it might as well have been a big cardboard box. The matters they had to discuss were the same regardless.

"I hear that you went out to talk to someone today." His older brother remarked as he closed the door behind him. Amshel Goldsmith was not a man to bother with formalities if at all possible.

"Yes, I had a business associate whom I needed to… inform of how our two companies' relationship would be mutually rewarded if they were to join together."

His brother grinned as he walked over to the desk, though he didn't bother to sit down.

"I see. You always did have a way with words, Solomon."

"That's one of the reasons I'm sitting in this lovely chair isn't it?" He joked lightly.

"Yes, but that's far from the only reason."

Despite his last thought, this was actually somewhat of a formality to go through.

"So, big brother, what is it that you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I heard that some of the employees here had seen a blue flash approaching the building a short while before you arrived at your office this morning."

"Ah, yes. I needed to catch a meeting."

They both gave a laugh small enough that it remained in their throats.

"What happened to that car you'd been driving?"

"Oh, it… got damaged." He responded, now knowing why his brother was here.

"Really? How did that happen?"

Solomon worried for about half a second on how to respond. Then he turned this conversation to his advantage.

"I was attacked."

Amshel's brow slightly tightened.

"Attacked… by whom?"

Solomon set his fountain pen down on the desk, pretending to look away in thought.

"I'm not sure, to be honest."

"So it wasn't the Red Shield, or perhaps some humans who wanted your position in the company?"

He shook his head.

"Whoever he was, the man was definitely neither human nor chiropteran."

It was now that Amshel decided to take a seat.

"Well, for one, he had light blue hair, and I don't believe it had been colored. In addition to that, unless mother has been out doing things on her own lately there's no way he could be a chevalier. Saya… would not turn someone into a chevalier if they were like him. Lastly, he didn't seem to have any idea what I was."

"Hm. Interesting." Amshel reflected, most likely already forming hypotheses in his head.

"He had strange powers, and I was incapable of killing him, if only due to a lack of time."

"This man, do you know what his intentions are? And if there are any more like him?"

"I believe he said there were at least nine or a dozen others like him. As for his intentions…"

He let the moment play out a bit longer.

"I believe he wishes to kill Diva."

"Kill Diva? What makes you think that?"

"He said he'd seen me with her, and that I had to die to he could go kill her next."

"What reason would he have to want to kill her?"

Solomon sighed, not in disappointment, but to make it sound as if this was a serious problem. Which, to an extent, it was.

"I don't believe this man has any grasp on sanity, brother Amshel. He most likely a serial killer of some unknown species, like us."

Amshel stood up from the chair, an immediateness in his movements and his tone.

"Regardless, if he intends to kill Diva then we must make eliminating him our top priority. Saya can wait for now, we will simply not make any significant moves for a time."

With that his big brother began to leave, and made it halfway to the door before Solomon spoke up again.

"And what about the others like him?"

Amshel didn't even stop his approach to the door.

"We can't take the chance of more people trying to attack us, not at this stage. We'll kill them all."

"Yes, Amshel." Solomon replied obligingly as his brother left the room.

"Oh and Solomon…" He spoke, his hand on the doorknob.

"Yes, big brother?"

"Diva wishes to see you."

He showed a looked of interest, wondering if it was anything in specific.

"Yes, big brother." He replied, Amshel closing the door behind him.

Solomon held up his pen once again, looking at it and smiling.

"And just like that. I sure am glad with the way this story is working out." He admitted before getting back to work, doing so as quickly as he always did.


	7. The devilish angel

How appropriate that he should have to ride up towards the heavens to see an angel. That is what Solomon thought as he rode the elevator up to the very top of the building.

It was actually rather ironic, for all her free spirit, Diva rarely went anywhere but the business buildings or homes of her chevaliers; her knights. And when she did it was always in the presence of one of them. Not that she necessarily wanted to do things this way, in fact, Diva had only occasionally shown vibrant interest in someone accompanying her and often didn't care one way or the other. It was only because her chevaliers were compelled to protect her that one of them traveled with her everywhere.

For some reason, though, she always seemed to enjoy being up in or on high places, which is why she chose to be here, on the fortieth floor of the Cinq Fleches headquarters building, a completely glass-constructed floor but for the one wall that the elevator came up into and the supports that kept it from collapsing.

Suddenly the elevator chimed louder than usual and Solomon began to take a step forward, the elevator doors as his shoe touched the floor just in time for him to walk out of the elevator, looking around the virtually mid-air fossil museum for any sign of his "queen".

Being that the few things in here that were not glass were white stone and that both the girl's skin and most of her dresses were pale or white, it was often difficult to find her, and near impossible if she had decided to play hide-and-seek with whoever got off of the elevator. Usually the only clue to her location was the long silky main of blue-black hair that she had, but that seemed to be absent.

"Diva?" He asked the whole room curiously, walking around it. Solomon checked in the fossils' ribcages, as she often enjoyed hiding in them, curled up, seeing how long it would take for someone to find her. Yet she was in none of them, so he continued his search, walking under a long, tall white-stone arch, hoping to see her drinking tea or the like at the small table up ahead-

-and the arch began to giggle.

His steps ceased after making it about a yard past the arch and Solomon turned around, smiling up at the arch.

"Good afternoon, Diva." He spoke happily, though it was with a calmness he always had.

She turned her head towards him, a single long strand of her hair slipping free and dangling in the air against the white arch.

"Good afternoon, Solomon. I haven't seen you in quite a while." She remarked similarly, her happiness suppressed yet in a quieter tone as opposed to a calmer one.

"My apologies, Diva. I've just been so busy with work lately."

She pretended to sigh, or perhaps she meant it, he could never tell, and looked back up at the glass ceiling.

"Work. That's been your explanation quite a lot lately." She remarked, neither sounding playful nor upset.

"But Solomon, how long has it been since we played together? I can't even remember the last time you and I played hide-and-seek."

Solomon tilted his head, realizing she had been correct, and to think that once upon a time they used to play all day, as if she were a energetic kitten.

"You're right, Diva. I wish we had time to play more."

"We have right now." He heard her whisper cryptically from behind him, causing the blond man to turn around, seeing her sitting in one of the chairs in front of the table. It frightened virtually anyone she'd ever shown it to; her speed. Yet he, and the other chevaliers, had realized by now that she was merely playing around and seeing if she could get an amusing reaction out of her visitor.

"Oh, good. You've decided to come down. It was starting to hurt my neck, looking at you up so high." He joked lightly while approaching the table, chairs, and her.

"You're a doctor, make it better." She responded playfully, staring at him as if he had agreed to be part of a tea party with her and her non-existent stuffed animals.

"Every time I look at your face, Diva, all of my aches and pains melt away." He praised her, immediately eliciting a loud, beautiful giggle that encompassed the entire floor.

"Oh, Solomon… you have such a way with words. You should have been a poet." She further teased him. He shrugged, pulling out a chair quietly and sitting down in it.

"So, Diva, did you want to go somewhere? Or did you just want to see me?"

Her head tilted slightly, her rosy lips brought back slightly and revealing a few immaculately-white teeth in an amused smile.

"I wanted to hear about who you were playing with today."

His eyes almost widened.

"Oh dear, you knew about that already? I wanted to surprise you."

Diva shook her head, as if amusingly gesturing at how silly he was being.

"There's no need to be so tricky, Solomon. Especially when you know I don't like waiting to do things."

"Yes, I know. You're very rambunctious." He told her, knowing she would find the last word amusing if only because it sounded "silly".

"Perhaps, but that's only because I never have anything to do that's fun enough."

He thought about it, and then leaned back slightly in his chair.

"Well, if you absolutely must know." He relented in a tone that made it sound as if she'd won at something. Diva immediately gave him a big smile, knowing that he always knew how to make her feel better.

"It was a light-blue-haired main with also blue eyes and a katana."

Her head tilted slightly in interest.

"Hmmm. Was he with my big sister?" She asked, rarely calling her twin by name.

But Solomon shook his head.

"I don't believe so. He was a bit too… overt, I believe."

"Overt? You mean he acted like an animal?" She inquired teasingly.

Solomon gave a quiet little breath of a laugh, to this day surprised at how she could be so childish for the most part and then suddenly have an amazingly-accurate perception of anything.

"To an extent. I wasn't able to fight him for very long, you see. I had-"

"-work to do." She spoke for him, immediately bursting out into another giggling storm.

"What's curious is that I believe that for the most part he is stronger than a chevalier." He mentioned, instantly getting the no-longer-laughing girl's attention.

"Stronger than a chevalier… you say." She spoke, perhaps more to herself than to him. Then Diva looked him straight in the eyes.

"I want to meet this man." Came the statement that was both a request and a demand at the same time.

"Unfortunately, I do not know where he is. And I don't believe Amshel would allow you to do so anyway."

Her smile suddenly faded away, replayed by a big frown and a sad pout.

"But why? I haven't done anything recently."

"Weren't you just dropping pennies off the roof of the building the other day? Seeing if you could make the moving dots below make a heart, I believe you were trying to do."

"Oh, but that wasn't anything serious. I didn't even get any of them." She further pleaded.

"Diva, you know Amshel doesn't care about that, he cares that you were up on a slippery glass roof playing around. You could have gotten seriously hurt doing that."

Her pout turned over, showing frustration now as she crossed her arms and looked away, closing her eyes.

"Well no one ever comes to play with me anymore. What did you want me to do? Stay here and turn into a fossil like these other things in here?"

Solomon sighed, resting his chin on his hand.

"Even if it wouldn't be a problem, I don't know where he is. The only thing I figured out about his motives is that…"

He got a thought.

One of her eyes opened, gazing at him in curiosity.

"Is what?" She questioned.

"Diva, if I were to theoretically take you to see him, would you promise to behave and only 'play' or eat that man?"

Both of her eyes were open now, and she looked down in thought. Then her face and her eyes returned to face him, both seeming to sparkle in the sunlight.

"I would do that for you, Solomon." She spoke, smiling a moment after. He smiled back at her, letting his hand fall down silently to the table.

"Do you have everything you need, before going out?" He asked her playfully.

"I do." She responded, barely keeping herself from giggling again.

"Well, then, let's get going, shall we? It's a long drive."

She nodded, her blue eyes beginning to shine in anticipation.

"Let's."


	8. Prelude to a massacre

As I've stated in a new story that I've posted, I'm going to be taking a different approach to updating; from now on it will be weekly. Hopefully this will make updates more consistent so people don't get tired of waiting.

Also, as a confession, I actually probably have enough chapters for this story to make it past 20. However, since they're on a different site that's harder to find them on, the main lack of updating is due to laziness. I apologize for that, but hopefully my readers will be more mature about it than I was and it won't bother them too much.

The update day for this story will be Thursday. So after today, that's when the updates will start coming.

* * *

Grimmjow's eagerness to find that man had lessened a lot since he found out how friggin' difficult it would be to do that. He must have been running, jumping and flying around for hours now and hadn't seen anything labeled "Cinq Fleches".

"I would've been better off just waiting for Kurosaki to show up." He thought while taking a quick break, looking around to see if there was anywhere that looked like the place.

The human world must have been as big as Hueco Mundo. Maybe even bigger. And he'd only been here a few times to fight. Grimmjow had absolutely no idea where this place was.

"Separate continents, countries, nations, counties, cities, towns… what the hell? Can't they all just stay in the same place?"

With an internal sigh Grimmjow set out again across the city, wondering if the building was even in this town.

* * *

"Solomon, why does it take so long to get to where that man is?" She asked him, a patient tone in her voice despite the impatient question.

They were in the back seats of a short white limo, and had been driving for quite some time now.

"The place where I fought him, a Japanese city called Karakura town, is quite far away from the building we were in." He explained to her.

She looked out the window at the passing buildings.

"Do you think he will still be there? Or will we have to go around looking for him?" Another question came, obviously with the intent of finding out if the "playing" she would get to do would even be worth the boredom of the time they spent riding around looking for him.

"To be honest, I'm not sure. I don't know how used to the layout of the planet he is. As far as I know the man could have come from another world to fight people."

A soft humorous purr emanated from her throat as Diva looked at him again.

"Separate worlds, Solomon? Aren't you being a bit imaginative?" She asked.

The question was ironic, since she was most often the one acting childish and air-headed, and then she asked others questions that showed comparatively great character depth perception.

Solomon shrugged and gave her a smile.

"Maybe. I've lived in the human world and the chiropteran world by now, and I sure do wish there was another one to inhabit."

Her head tilted slightly and she leaned forward.

"Now, Solomon, surely you're not saying that being in this world of ours isn't satisfactory?"

The blond-haired man shook his head.

"Not at all. I just wish that there was another world where there wasn't any fighting."

"But there isn't, Solomon. Humans and Chiropterans, we live in the same world. And even if that man did come from a different world it sure wouldn't be a peaceful one."

He thought about her words for a few moments before his smile grew a bit deeper.

"You're certainly feeling serious this afternoon, Diva." He remarked pleasantly.

"Of course."

One of her pale, soft hands came over and touched his cheek.

"After all, you're here with me, Solomon."

He closed his eyes, enjoying the touch of her hand.

"I'm glad I make you think about things in a different way. It is always nice to know one has a unique effect on someone."

"I just wish you would come visit me more, Solomon. I get so lonely up there, people only coming to see me every few days."

"Why don't you make a friend then? Someone you won't bite."

Her hand came away and he opened his eyes again.

"A human friend?"

"Yes, I think it would do you good to have someone else to play with and be around."

She looked out the window, a monotone expression on her face.

"No humans want to be my friend, Solomon. You know that." She replied in a similar tone to the expression she wore.

"I'm sorry, Diva."

Once again the girl looked at him.

"But you'll always be with me, right Solomon?"

"Yes, Diva."

Her mouth curved upward for a moment and then returned to the line.

Solomon looked out the window himself, hoping that, after all of the fighting was over and he discovered whose side he was on, that he hadn't just lied to Diva.

* * *

"You know what? The hell with you, Solomon. I'll kill you later." Grimmjow thought, stomping into the roof he landed on and stopping his movement, as well as making a big crack in the roof.

Kurosaki was somewhere in the town and he knew where the guy lived. That was a hell of a lot better than running around this whole stupid world looking for some blond guy who could be anywhere.

Grimmjow gave one last scan of the streets below, and then turned around to head back the way he'd came-

-and his eyes caught sight of a teenage guy with orange hair in a topless car down below.

He couldn't see the guy's face, but it had to be Kurosaki. Everyone else he'd seen in this city either had black, brown or occasionally blond hair.

The blue-haired Arrancar stepped up to the edge of the roof and smirked.

"I guess my luck's turning over after all." He spoke to himself before jumping far up into the air and turning his body over, aiming straight down at the street and cars below. He let gravity do what it wanted and soon he was jolting down through the air like a bolt of lightning towards the car. His form plummeted into the vehicle, destroying the engine entirely, and Grimmjow burst up from the front of the vehicle, grabbing the orange-haired guy by the neck and lifting him into the air.

"Time for round three Kuro-"

A twenty-something year old guy with a tie and a pen sticking out of his pocket looked down at him in fear. No, not at him, past him. The little weakling wasn't even strong enough to _see_ him.

Grimmjow scoffed and dropped the man into the seat of his car.

"What kinda stupid tie-wearing jackass has orange hair?!" He asked the man angrily, even though he apparently couldn't hear him.

The stupid guy scrambled out of his car and ran, screaming, down the sidewalk.

"And here I was thinking I'd actually be able to get a good fight in today." Grimmjow thought out loud as he heard a car door open in the cars behind the one he was standing in… on…whatever.

Pulling his feet out of the engine, and noticing those stupid pants were covered from the knee down with some black stuff, Grimmjow jumped out of the car and onto the street again, trying to get his bearings on where he was.

Luckily for the most part he'd just headed in a straight line.

"Fine, guess I'd better get going then. It'll take forever to find him now anyway, no point in adding to the time by standing around."

"Oh, dear, you plan on leaving?" He heard some voice say behind him.

His face was a mask of confusion and a bit of cynicism as Grimmjow turned around to face back past the car. The car behind it was some long fancy-looking white one and two people stood around it, one on each side.

On the left was the person who'd spoken, some girl with black hair and a white dress. And on the left…

"Heh. Heheh. Hahaha!" Grimmjow laughed out in absolute hysterics and maniacal joy.

He'd get to have a fight soon after all!

"Hey, how's it going Solomon? Ya miss me?" He asked with a smirk, completely oblivious to everyone and everything but his enemy.

"Not particularly, no. Though it is fortunate that you came this far yourself. How did you learn my name?" He inquired.

He pulled the card out of one of his pants pockets, showing it to him.

"The little thing was just lying there like some kinda goodbye flower or something."

Solomon took a few steps forward, though it didn't look as if he had any intention on engaging in a fight. Not that he had any choice.

"Oh, I see. Would you mind giving that back to me? I only have one right now and the person who's supposed to deliver them is… no longer able to do so."

He put the card back into his pocket.

"Ha! No way, this is my little ace in the hole in case you decide to run away again. Try to leave a map this time if you do. Or were you planning on going back to your dead card-maker? How'd he die? He choke on your-"

"It was a… drinking accident. Unfortunately no one seems to know how he died specifically. It seems his body has disappeared." He interrupted.

"Well isn't that sad?" Grimmjow asked with humor in his tone as he took a step forward himself.

"I thought so."

"Enough talking, already. I've been searching everywhere for you just so we could finish our fight."

"I would prefer not to." Solomon spoke, passive as before.

"You don't have much of a choice." Grimmjow retorted, his eyes narrowing.

They stood there, separated by the car, each waiting for the other to move.

"Well, then, if you're not going to move then-"

"How rude." The voice spoke up again, making the rest of the world seem to exist once more to him and bringing Grimmjow out of his state of satisfaction.

"I asked you if you planned on leaving and you acted like I wasn't even here. What bad manners." The girl spoke to him again, not sounding that angry at all despite what she was saying.

Grimmjow frowned, looking at the girl; pale skin, blue eyes, long black hair, pretty face.

"What, this your girlfriend or your sister or something?" He asked Solomon with a lack of interest.

"I'm bored with this. Solomon doesn't want to play with you anyway." She told him, some kind of small smile on her face.

His frown turned into a scowl and he waved her away.

"Get the hell out of here! I came here to fight this guy! Not some pretty little brat!"

She giggled.

Giggled? What the-

"Brat, hm? You're funny."

One of his eyebrows rose up in curiosity.

"Really? You think just 'cause you can see and talk to me that you-"

She disappeared as the wind seemed to blow across the street and his eyes went wide.

"What the hell?!"

The wind shifted and blew towards his back, carrying the scent of rose petals to him.

Grimmjow turned around, and got smacked in the chest by a hand, blasting him through the car and sending him skidding along the street.

He scowled again, hating how these two had both made him look like an idiot, and dug his hands into the street, grinding through it until he came to a stop.

"Oh dear. Solomon?" She spoke to the blond, looking over at him.

"Don't worry, I'm sure he'll prove more than worthwhile once you get started."

"You think so?" She asked, as if wondering if she should get a pair of shoes.

"I hope you're right. I've waited much too long for this fun to be over in a minute."

Grimmjow stood from the street, glaring at her.

"You… you think you can kill me?! In a minute?! Now that pisses me off! I don't care if you're a chick or not!" He roared, digging his feet into the street and lunging across it in only a few seconds, swiping at her with a hand with enough force to knock that pretty little head of hers off its shoulders.

It barely surprised him when he noticed she'd disappeared, and he swept the hand all the way, aiming it behind him and firing off a Bala to incinerate whatever happened to be there. He heard it hit something and the car that he'd just messed up a few minutes ago was blasted all to hell as the blue-haired arrancar turned around.

She stood to the right of the car, or what was left of it anyway. The very edge of the same sleeve of her dress was singed.

"So, it looks like you're even faster than blondie over there." He remarked, a grin back on his face.

"You missed." She stated with a smile as if he'd said nothing.

A smirk shoved his grin off the stage.

"Don't you worry. That won't happen again."

Her head tilted, the two staring into each other's eyes.

"Oh really?" She asked, intrigued.

His hands tightened into fists.

"Yeah. Really."


	9. Foiled hunt

A red shot obliterated another car as some blue form whizzed by it, barely missing the thing as another form flew after it.

Once more red blasted out for the constantly moving blue mirage, yet though many buildings, sidewalks, cars, and other things sustained major damage the mirage remained untouched.

Suddenly the chase ceased and both the mirage and the form that had been chasing it went still, the girl appearing as the mirage just blinked away and Grimmjow stepping forward, looking at her with a smirk.

"Huh, guess I shouldn't have spoken so soon. You're pretty fast. But don't you get tired just running away all the time?"

The girl was smiling, seeming pleased, and took a step forward herself.

Grimmjow prepared for her to come at him, but like before she disappeared. However, when she re-appeared behind him this time he spun around and grabbed her wrist as it struck out at him, then he threw her over his shoulder at a building. Unfortunately she managed to gain control in her flight and landed elegantly on a balcony of the building.

"Wiseass huh? Well…"

There was a sound of sudden displacement as he used his Sonido to appear right above her.

"I can move fast too ya little runt!" He roared, the girl looking up at him, seeming more pleased than she had before.

His eyes narrowed and Grimmjow struck down at her with a leg. Then, as if mocking what he'd done to her before, she grabbed his foot as it descended towards her and pulled it further down until they were face to face.

Grimmjow was stunned this chick could block his attacks so easily. Solomon hadn't looked like much either but he'd thought this would be a snap.

She brought a hand up to the side of his face, seeming to examine him.

"I like your eyes. They're pretty." She purred, causing him to break out of his funk and pull away, aiming his hand at her.

"Go to hell!" He yelled at her as the air in front of his hand glowed red and began to charge, forming a Cero. That finally caused the girl to lose her smile, though it looked like it was more out of curiosity than any kind of fear.

"Doesn't matter. She'll get blown away all the same." He thought as the energy discharged, annihilating the whole building that stood in front of it in one magnificent red burst.

When the dust cleared only the very edges of the building remained, having been spared from the cero's radius. There was no sign of her; no blood, no bones, no pieces of clothing... nothing remained.

"Damnit." He thought out loud, knowing there would have at least been shoes left or something if it'd worked.

Grimmjow began to turn around when he felt an arm curl up under one of his own and place itself at the base of his neck, another one doing the same under the opposite arm, as if he was being embraced from behind.

"I wonder if you'll taste like fire… or maybe ice…" He heard the girl muse behind him.

"What the hell-"

Then he felt two things sink into his neck and a strong pain jolted out through his body. The blue-haired Arrancar yelled out, fury overwhelming his pain, and thrashed, trying to break free. But it wasn't any use. Regardless of how this girl looked, she was just as strong if not stronger than he was.

"The hell she is! No one is stronger than me!" He roared in his mind, putting his arms down and aiming his hands back, both firing a Bala and forcing the girl to depart from her drinking before he'd completely run out of strength.

Grimmjow stumbled and fell forward, landing on the floor of what used to be a room of the building.

"Oh dear, was that all you had to offer? I'd been hoping there would be a bit more to you." She remarked, her tone approaching a pout.

_"'more to me'?! I'm not as good as you thought I was?! I'm so much weaker?!"_

His hands grabbed the tiled floor and scraped his nails along it as he forced himself up.

"You think you're stronger than me, don't you?" He asked, his voice suppressed for the moment.

"Yes." She replied like it was a normal question.

"…alright. Fine." He spoke, his voice raising.

"I'm not going to let anyone think that, let alone a little vampire brat. I'll show you, I'm not weak!" He roared, grabbing the scabbard of his katana with one hand and the hilt with the other as he spun around and ran at her.

"Now grind!-"

Someone appeared behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, the girl not even seeming to acknowledge it, before they disappeared in another one of those blue mirages.

"Damnit!" He swore while running forward, looking down onto the street and seeing that Solomon was gone as well.

His teeth ground together in infuriation and he let out the loudest roar he could muster into the sky.

* * *

"What were you thinking, Solomon? Bringing Diva out to that man like this." James remarked.

Diva sat in the back seat of a car yet again, though this time it was that of a modest one driven by her "rescuer"; James Ironside.

The car wasn't anything special. It was reliable, that was all that mattered to him.

Solomon sat in the front passenger's seat, looking out the window without any real interest.

"Diva wished to go and see him, so I took her to him. It was that simple, James." Solomon remarked as passively as ever.

James regarded the statement with mixed feelings, though the most noticeable one was irritation.

"But she could have been severely hurt! If even one scratch had befallen her-"

"James…" Diva began calmly, looking at him through his seat.

"Please don't be mad at Solomon. I've gone so long without playing with anyone that I simply had to go and see that man."

James glanced back at her.

"And, I want to see him again." She spoke, touching a finger to her lips.

"That blood of his… it was absolutely exquisite."

The dark-skinned military man looked forward once again.

"Diva, I know you wish to drink more of his blood. But why not send one of us out to capture him and bring him back so you can drink his blood in a safer environment?" He suggested.

A smile reached onto her face and she looked out her window.

"That man, he was different than any other tasty human. He wasn't just stronger either. His demeanor, I found it interesting. If you were to beat him like a dog and bring him back broken he might not be that way anymore. And there's no fun behind defeating him if he's already broken."

Solomon glanced back at her.

"You seem quite taken with him, Diva. You weren't thinking of making him a chevalier were you?"

Her smile changed, becoming more thoughtful.

"I don't know. Having someone riley like him might make things a bit more interesting. Karl has a bit of that but he's too obsessed with my sister to be any fun. Or perhaps… I should make him mine another way."

She thought about it and found a pleasant surprise behind the thinking; she didn't know. Diva didn't know what she wanted to do with that man. And that made him all the more intriguing to her.

One way or another, she would make him hers. It would be nice if she could take him as he was now, but if owning him meant breaking him… well, then that was what would have to be.


	10. The help

"Damnit! Damnit! Damnit! Damnit, damnit, damnit!" He continued to rage, his body trembling in anger as he resisted the urge to destroy the whole city around him.

That little brat had picked a fight with him and all he had to show for it was a fever and a bloodstain on his neck! While that girl'd just had her dress singed a bit.

"There's no way I'm going to let her get away with that." Grimmjow thought out loud as he fought to keep his body under control, his blood feeling like lava trying to melt its way out of his body. It wasn't just the wound, or that he'd failed to deal her one. An image of the girl smiling down at him from up on the balcony came into his mind and his eyes flared.

"Those eyes of hers… they were looking at me like I was some sort of stupid little kitten!" He growled, bringing a hand up and plunging it into the floor of the building, punching right through it and sending cracks across the floor like he'd just broken ice.

"Solomon, Kurosaki, Aizen, that girl… I'll kill 'em all! And anyone else who looks down on me!" Grimmjow roared at the world.

* * *

"See you later, guys. I've gotta get home. Got a lot of work to do." He explained while leaving the room.

"Iiiiiiichiiiiiigooo- agh!" Came Keigo when Ichigo close-lined him on his way out of the classroom.

"Sorry, Keigo. No time to mess around. Gotta get home."

He heard the teenager get up and chase after him.

"Yeah, I bet you've got a lot of work to do! After all you _did_ skip over a month of school. What were you doing? Huh? Huh? I bet you went on some kind of getaway with Rukia. That's it isn't it?"

"Don't know what you're talking about. Talk to ya later." He told his friend, leaving him in the dust as he walked down the hall.

Ichigo thought about what that man had wanted to talk to his father about this morning as the halls and stairs seemed to pass by on their own. Something about him had seemed… foreboding or something. He couldn't explain the feeling really.

The teenager pushed open the front doors of the school and walked out of it, looking forward onto the street and seeing someone familiar standing just off the school grounds; a blonde-haired man in a white suit waited with a smile on the other side of the street.

"Huh, wonder what he wants." Ichigo thought to himself while walking over to the guy.

"Hey, it's you again. Can I help you with something?" Ichigo inquired, not really getting any bad feeling about the guy's reason for being here.

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about something. It's related to what your father and I were talking about this morning, and I thought that I would talk to you about it as well."

Ichigo shrugged.

"Sure. What did you want to talk about?"

"It concerns your after-school job, actually."

Ichigo frowned more than usual, not sure what he was talking about.

"I don't know what you mean. I don't have a job right now."

The man's smile showed some amusement as he responded.

"It's not a normal job. It's importance is comparable to life-and-death."

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. Whatever this guy was getting at, he didn't like it.

"Look, why don't you just come out and say what you're talking about? You're not making much sense."

The man breathed a small laugh.

"Okay, fair enough. Soul reaper."

His eyes went wide in surprise as the man looked at him with the same look he'd probably worn all morning and into the afternoon.

"You see, I need the help of soul reapers. My family and I are in great danger and normal humans just simply aren't enough to help us."

Ichigo's eyes returned to normal and he gave the man a suspicious look.

"What do you mean by 'danger'? Hollows?"

A flash of realization passed across the man's face, but was gone in an instant.

"Well, it used to be infighting. A war within the family. However, recently I was attacked by something else."

Ichigo did nothing, still suspicious but wondering where the man was going with this.

"An ice-blue-haired man with a Japanese sword and a ferocious disposition. I believe you know him."

Once again his face became a mask of surprise.

"Grimmjow…" He remarked out loud.

The man continued.

"He attacked me after I left your home. I think he was looking for you and thought you were in the car with me for some reason."

Ichigo's expression returned to one of suspicion, his story a bit shaky now.

"If Grimmjow had really attacked you, you would be dead. No normal guy could survive getting ambushed by him."

"I don't believe I said I was a human." He responded, not sounding upset.

"You're not? Then what are you?" He asked the man, his left hand in the pocket that held his soul reaper pass; an object that would let him become a soul reaper whenever he wanted.

The blond seemed to notice something coming up from behind Ichigo and he heard footsteps coming across the grass back on the school grounds as well.

"It looks like we've run out of time for now. My name is Solomon. I would very much appreciate it if you would consider helping us. If you don't, my entire family may die."

He blinked, and the man was gone.

"Hey, wait!" He yelled after him, but knew it was too late.

"Ichigo?" He heard a deep voice ask him from behind.

The teenager turned around and saw his friend, Chad, looking at him.

"Chad, did you see that guy in the suit?" He asked.

"I did. But it looked like he just disappeared."

He sighed, glad it hadn't been his imagination.

"What were you two talking about?" His friend asked quietly.

"He wanted me to help him… and his family I guess. He knew that I was a soul reaper."

"Really? That's strange. I didn't think any other normal people knew but Uryu, Orihime and I."

Ichigo nodded.

"Yeah, I know. I think he found out-"

His sentence didn't get to finish as he remembered the part about Grimmjow being here in the world of the living.

"Sorry, Chad, I've got to go do something. I'll talk to you later, okay?" He asked, already running back to his house.

If Grimmjow thought that he was home now then he might tear the whole place apart looking for him.

He didn't know what he thought about Solomon's story; his family being in danger. But if they were able to do things like he did, disappearing without a trace, then it would certainly lend a bit more to him not being able to rely on the police. And he'd seemed genuine when he said he wanted help.

Ichigo rushed back home and hoped it would still be there when he got back.


	11. The approaching confrontation

"Well, that's good." Ichigo remarked breathlessly as he arrived at his house, seeing that it was still standing. Bending over and putting his hands on his knees, Ichigo also noticed the remnants of the battle Solomon had spoken of.

"I guess he really _wasn't _lying. That car's completely destroyed and these skid-marks don't look anything like something a car would make." He noted, looking around. The collateral damage was definitely Grimmjow's calling card, when they'd fought before it was almost as if he'd made a _point _of ruining the environment around them.

"But what's he doing _here_? There obviously weren't anymore Espadas with him, or at least from what I can tell. And I doubt they'd send just one Arrancar to attack us."

Luckily it didn't seem Grimmjow had gotten to use a Cero, because that probably would have annihilated at least a few blocks worth of buildings.

"Did he really come here just to fight _me_? The last time we fought he acted like I'd be no problem to beat, and then he comes here alone to battle with me? It doesn't make any sense."

Ichigo continued thinking about it for several minutes before deciding to just head in. Karin and Yuzu were usually back before he even got here, since their school let them out earlier, and their dad would probably be in their house now as well. The teenager walked past all the damages towards his house and entered, noticing that not even a piece of dirt had gotten onto their house as a result of the battle.

"Hey, I'm home-"

"Welcome back Ichiiii- blagh!"

The fist came away from the charging man's face, leaving him to hold his nose as Ichigo walked into the house, greeting Karin and Yuzu. They greeted him back as he sat down at the table they ate their food at; it was not really a dining room.

"Hey, Ichigo, you're home awfully early. You usually stay out for a few hours hanging out with your friends."

He set his book bag down next to his chair.

"Yeah, well, had to make sure the house was still standing, ya know?"

"That's true. Who knows what condition it'll be in when you leave _dad_ alone here?"

"What?! I keep this house ship-shape! Not an ounce of dirt makes it into this immaculate construct due to my constant watch of-"

"Yeah, never know."

"Hey! Are you two talking like I'm not even here?!"

"Did you see what happened out front by the way? Though I guess it's pretty hard to miss." Karin mentioned as their father became increasingly isolated in the conversation.

"Yeah, there must have been some kind of serious accident for all of that to happen. I only saw one car though. Seems like it'd be hard to ruin it on its own."

"Wasn't that that blond guy's car too? I hope dad didn't destroy it or anything."

"Of course not!"

"Hey, dad, what were you two talking about anyway?" Karin asked him, finally seeming to give him the luxury of being part of the conversation. Ichigo looked at him as well, having forgotten to mention it. Their father's silly demeanor ceased and he sat down in the last chair.

"Oh, he just wanted my help with something."

He had to work hard to keep his expression from changing at that. All of what Solomon had said so far seemed true.

"Help, you mean he was hurt or something?"

"No, his family's been in a bit of a bind for a while I guess. He was asking me if I would be willing to talk to some people I used to work with; policemen, medics, the like, about helping them."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed as he thought about the situation.

_"Why talk to my father first? Had he been trying to gather information on me? See if I would be willing to help?"_

"But enough about that, I'm sure it'll work out. I actually wanted to tell everyone that we're going to have to have dinner early tonight since one of my regular patients couldn't come earlier and is going to be arriving at the clinic in about an hour. I recommended that he go to the hospital but he's adamant about seeing me instead. I hope it's not too big of a problem."

"Not at all." Ichigo said, guessing it'd be a little while before he could go upstairs and really think this over. His sisters shared the feeling and Isshin thanked them for understanding before going with Yuzu to make dinner.

Ichigo glanced down at his book bag, guessing he should get some homework done before dinner. It would help him try and get his mind off the other stuff for a while too. He reached down for his books as a loud knock sounded at the door. It was just barely on the line of aggressive in fact.

"Who could that be?" Karin asked, not sounding all that concerned.

"I don't know." Ichigo responded while walking towards the door.

"Hey, Ichigo, don't worry, I'll get it." His father told him, walking towards the door as well.

"I can get it dad." He responded; it was not really a big deal.

"It's fine, just get working on your homework."

He shrugged and sat back down, pulling his books out and setting them on the table as his father opened the door.

"Good afternoon, what can I do for you?" His father greeted the person kindly.

Ichigo opened his book to the section on Africa during the industrial revolution.

"I'm looking for Ichigo Kurosaki. He here?"

The book flipped to a page on a white panther killing workers in the jungle and Ichigo froze.

"Sure. Ichigo, someone is here to see you."

He breathed out and closed his book, making sure his combat pass was still in his pocket, then he got out of his chair and walked over to the doorway. His father stepped out of the way and he saw a familiar blue-haired man with the remnants of a hollow mask on his right cheek; the piece looking like oversized jaws that had degenerated into bone. The man was dressed like a modern-day human, contrary to how he'd looked before and Ichigo wondered how many people he'd hurt since arriving here. Somehow he doubted Grimmjow was the type to work hard to make some money and then pay for clothes when he could just beat up whoever had them and take them for free.

It was weird that his father hadn't mentioned the "mask" on the side of Grimmjow's jaw, but he may have just been acting polite. One way or another, it didn't matter.

"Thanks dad." He spoke, his father nodding and walking back into the kitchen.

Grimmjow was frowning, not seeming to be in "attack mode" yet.

"What are you here for, Grimmjow?" He asked, already knowing why but feeling like he should ask anyway.

"You _know _what I'm here for."

Ichigo sighed.

"Yeah, I guess I do. Somewhere else."

The man didn't blink, as if he were a cat waiting for a mouse to let its guard down.

"Sure."

"Dad, Karin, Yuzu, I'll be back in a while." He said while closing the door behind him and noticing a tiny smirk flash across Grimmjow's face.

Ichigo glanced at Grimmjow and then started walking down the street, heading for the bridge and the land around it that was a few miles off.

"Hey, why're you walking? I don't feel like taking a stroll with you." Grimmjow told him from behind.

"Just shut up. I'm not going to just leave my body here for anyone to see. And I can't use the flash step to get me anywhere quickly like this either. If your battle is so important then it can wait."

The man scoffed.

"Fine, whatever. Just don't run away."

Ichigo thought of all the questions he'd come up with before as he walked down the street towards the bridge, having chosen that location for more than just its seclusion. After all, a lot of the questions he had involved people who had interacted with this guy that followed behind him and if he knew _anything _about what was going on then Ichigo could use all the pieces of the puzzle that Grimmjow could provide.

"So tell me, Grimmjow, what are you doing here?"

"The hell are you talking about? I'm here to beat the hell out of _you_."

"Was it an order from Aizen?"

"I don't follow his orders anymore."

"So you're not an Espada?"

"What does it matter, Kurosaki?"

"Because I want to know if I'm fighting Grimmjow Jeagerjaques or the sexta Espada."

"…I'm not."

Ichigo nodded to himself, his hold on the combat pass loosening just slightly.

"I also heard you're the guy to thank for the redecoration outside our house." He spoke, the rhythm of their footsteps sounding like a tick-tocks of a clock.

"You've certainly been asking a lot of questions, what is this, an interrogation?"

"Don't forget, Grimmjow. _You're _the one who _wants _to fight, I'm just answering your call. The least you could do is answer some questions."

"I don't owe you anything. If I get tired of waiting I can always start fighting right _now_. What would you do if I did? Not fight back?"

Ichigo sighed.

"Just answer the question."

Grimmjow scoffed and they walked for several seconds in silence. Then he spoke up.

"I fought a guy outside your house. Thought you were in the back seat or something but the guy turned out to be some super-human."

His expression tightened, though Grimmjow wouldn't have been able to see it.

"Super-human?"

"I couldn't kill the guy." He responded.

"That should tell you more than enough."

He looked down at the ground in thought.

"_Yeah, it does."_

"Even more messed up than that, after I found out who the bastard was and chased after him I ran into him on accident when I attacked someone _else _with orange hair who I thought was you."

"You don't seem to be very good at finding people." Ichigo remarked with a normal expression, though he gave a bit of a chuckle on the inside.

"Shut up. I found you eventually. But it was strange… there was some chick with that guy and she was like some kind of little demon or something."

"_Little demon?_ What are you talking about?"

"I couldn't kill _her either_! _That's _what I'm talking about! And I think she was even stronger than that guy Solomon."

"_We're definitely talking about the same guy. But I wonder who that girl is. Girls can be just as strong __as guys. Yoruichi is the best evidence anyone could ever use. But I wonder what makes those two so __special that Grimmjow couldn't even manage to kill one of them."_

"It doesn't matter though." The blue-haired Arrancar spoke from behind, pulling Ichigo out of his thoughts.

"After I take _you _out I'm going after _them _and I'll kill them this time."

Ichigo sighed again and looked over at a house nearby, noticing that it was Chad's. He didn't have time for this. Grimmjow could lose patience any second and his own human body wouldn't be able to stand up to his attacks.

"Sorry, but that's not happening. I won't let you kill anyone."

"Whatever. You won't be able to do anything to _stop _me."

He made it in front of Chad's house and looked at it. From what he could tell his friend wasn't home, but this was as good a place as any to leave his body. Ichigo walked over to the front of his house and sat down on the steps.

"Hey, what the hell are you doing?"

He didn't answer. All Ichigo did was pull his combat pass out of his pocket and use it to free his soul- reaper body from his human one.

"I told you; I can't let you kill anyone. And I've got to find out what I can about this Solomon guy and what's going on with him. I don't have time to mess around with you all day."

Grimmjow scoffed.

"Then lead the way, Kurosaki."

His eyes narrowed.

"You got it."


	12. Stolen Soul

"Hya!" He yelled as he swung his sword, zangetsu, at Grimmjow.

The man smirked and drew his sword, in the process blocking the blade in its tracks.

Ichigo scowled, though there was no reason to expect he could defeat Grimmjow with only his shikai; his sword's normal release form.

"Didn't you learn anything _last _time? Even when you use your _bankai _you still lose to me, don't even _think _about attacking me when you're using anything less than that."

He stepped back, still holding his sword out in front of him.

"You're right. If I want to end this quickly…"

Suddenly the air around him erupted in black and red flames.

"Then I'm going to use all the power I have! Bankai!"

The flames engulfed Ichigo and swirled around him for several seconds before dissipating and revealing him and Tensa-zangetsu; his bankai. He drew his sword to his side and the same flames appeared across the long thin blade.

"Getsuga… tensho!" He yelled while swinging his sword forward, sending a wave of spirit energy through the air at Grimmjow, who jumped over it. Ichigo flash-stepped to where the Arrancar appeared and swung his sword at the man, who blocked with his own.

"So this is still all you've got, huh? Bankai? I can't believe I wasted my time looking for you. And here I'd thought you had gotten _stronger_."

Ichigo's expression tightened and one of his hands came away from the hilt, up to his face. Grimmjow frowned, wondering what he was doing, before Ichigo's hand came down and a white mask appeared over his face, his eyes turning black with golden pupils.

Suddenly zangetsu pushed past Grimmjow's defenses and slashed at his neck. The Arrancar just barely managed to avoid getting his head cut off by falling backwards, hand-springing off the ground after the sword had traveled through the air and landing several yards away.

One of his hands leapt up and the air in front of it grew red.

"_Bala!" _Ichigo thought, charging towards him. Just as the Bala shot towards him he leapt over it and created more energy around Tensa-zangetsu.

"Getsuga tensho!" He yelled once again, this time a wave of black and red flying down through the air at Grimmjow, forcing him to dive out of the way to avoid getting caught in the blast.

The man barely had enough time to stand before Ichigo was in front of him and he struck Grimmjow's sword with his own like a baseball bat, knocking away his guard and sending him into the air. He immediately followed and thrust upwards at the man's chest. Parrying it with his sword, Grimmjow kicked towards Ichigo's head, aiming to damage him enough to at least get some breathing space. However, in his hollowfied state a single free hand was all he needed to block the kick and Ichigo grabbed his ankle, pulling him down through the air and once again swinging his sword at him. Grimmjow blocked like before, but there was such force behind the swing that his sword was sent reeling from his hands and flew down into the ground, imbedded several inches within it.

In a desperate attempt Grimmjow brought up one of his hands and fired a Bala at Ichigo, who had to dodge it at such short range that Grimmjow managed to get back on the ground. Ichigo shortly followed, a triangle formed between Grimmjow, his sword, and Ichigo.

"That mask, those powers… what the hell did you do to yourself?!" The blue-haired man yelled at him, breathing hard.

"I don't have time to tell you, I've got to finish this quickly."

He once again created energy around his sword, bringing it back.

"Okay, that's it. You want to go use some messed up power? Well, I've got more power _too_!" The Arrancar declared, diving for his sword.

Ichigo swung Zangetsu and the energy began to fly off the blade, its path intending to end directly on the side of Grimmjow's head as he dove for his sword, just barely reaching-

-air.

The energy disappeared from Zangetsu and Ichigo's mask vanished as he watched a man with a tight black beard pull Grimmjow's sword out of the ground and disappear.

Both of the fighters were left at a surprised loss for several seconds before Grimmjow bolted up, spinning around violently.

"Hey! Where the hell did you _go_?! He demanded at the space around him.

Ichigo's bankai disappeared and her walked forward a few steps.

"Who was that?" He asked the enraged man.

"How the hell should_ I _know?! But he took my sword, and he's going to pay for that!"

Ichigo looked around himself, but he already knew the man was gone.

Grimmjow's hands tightened into fists and he punched down into the ground, cursing as he did so.

The substitute soul reaper looked down at him, placing Zangetsu on his own back.

"What would he want with your sword?"

"I don't know." He breathed.

"But I've got a guess of where he went." Grimmjow said while standing up, eerily calm.

"Just because we're not soul reapers, doesn't mean we don't care about our weapons. The core of our powers are sealed within them. Without our weapons, we aren't even really whole."

Ichigo stared at him silently, not having seen him like this before.

Grimmjow turned his head, looking at him.

"I'm going to go get my zanpakuto back. You get as strong as you can and when I come _back_ I'll crush you at your full strength."

His expression tightened at the repeated mention of the man's intentions.

"Are you sure you don't need some help with that?"

The man scoffed and looked away.

"I'm not some little human, Kurosaki. I don't need someone like you to find my own sword. Besides, I doubt you'd be willing to kill the guys who took it. And that's exactly what I'm going to do."

Ichigo did nothing but stand quietly as Grimmjow walked away and then he heard a "jutting" sound go through the air, and the man was gone.

* * *

"But why _not _Karl?" She asked the uncooperative man, who had taken a step back since she asked him if he would play hide-and-go seek with her.

He held his hands up, as if to show he meant no harm.

"It's just a strange way to play tag."

Her hand came down, allowing the dress in it to drape on the floor.

"It's prince-and-princess go seek. The prince has to find the princess who calls "help me prince" out quietly."

"Like Marco Polo and hide-and-go seek combined." Solomon explained further, his normal smile having taken a bit of a humorous shift to it.

"Quiet, Solomon. You aren't helping." He told the blonde who sat at the table in the skyscraper fossil-glasshouse.

"So put it on and go hide. And be sure to call out 'save me prince' in the highest pitch you can make."

"Why don't _you _play the princess and _I'll _find _you_? Your beautiful voice is much more suited to call out such a phrase."

She shook her head.

"I don't like being the one to hide. I like 'seeking'."

"You'd best do it, Karl. Before she gets upset."

He trembled slightly, as if remembering a past outbreak, and she smiled, foreseeing his cooperation. However, as she expected him to come over to her to take the dress they all heard the elevator arrive and Diva turned away from the table, looking down through the arch at the elevator door as it opened and Amshel walked out of it, carrying something behind himself.

"Amshel!" She shouted out in glee, suspecting he'd brought her a present.

"Did you get me something?!" She questioned him happily, trying to look around his back.

"I don't believe this is something you would want, Diva. I actually just came up here to request that Solomon not take you anywhere else today before I took this down to the lab."

"What is it?" She asked him, still interested as Solomon and Karl both walked over to them. After a moment he held out a katana with blue braiding and a silver S-shaped guard.

"That's-"

"That man's sword! How did you get it Amshel?" She asked him, looking up at his face now.

"He and another person were fighting and he lost hold of it. I took it and left."

"You mean you ran away." She teased him.

"Did you kill the man as well?" Solomon asked normally.

Amshel looked at the blond man and waited a moment before responding.

"No. All I wanted was the weapon. I believe you said it had some sort of special properties."

"Yes. After Diva damaged him he seemed to become enraged. He was going to release some sort of power before James arrived."

"If that is indeed the case, perhaps we can learn something from this weapon. If he really is nothing but a stray chevalier then disposing of him won't be a very big problem."

"Amshel… I want that sword." She told him, touching the blade delicately with her fingertips.

"You do?"

"Yes. It reminds me of that man. If I can't play with him or make him mine then I want a memento of him."

"But Diva."

"_Please _Amshel? You told me once I could have anything I ever wanted."

He gazed at her.

"I want this. I really do."

His hand lowered the hilt to her, which she appreciatively took.

"Thank you, Amshel."

"Of course, Diva."

She stepped away from everyone else and ran around the greenhouse, swinging at imaginary enemies with the blade.

"Big brother, if you can't test the weapon then what will you do?" Solomon asked.

"Diva wants him. I will bring him to her and then once she has finished with him I will use him as a test subject."

"What if she doesn't get tired of him?"

He gave the man as close to a mocking stare as the strict scientist ever got.

"She _always _gets bored with them _eventually_. Karl, how would you and James like to come with me and track down and capture this man?"

"Of course. If he wishes to harm our Diva then it goes without saying that he can't run around freely."

Amshel looked at Solomon once again.

"Work is unimportant for now. Nathan will be arriving here soon. You and him stay here in case that man somehow manages to get here before we find him."

"What about Saya, big brother? I thought the people you had following her and her group said they knew where Diva is."

"They _did _say that. But seeing that man's powers and what you described proves that he is much more of a threat than that traitor and her servant. Regardless of who may show up to harm her do not let me down, Solomon. Do not let _Diva _down."

"Never in my darkest nightmares, big brother."

With that Amshel and Karl headed for the elevator once again, leaving Solomon to think and Diva to continue playing with the sword.

She smiled while gazing at its brilliantly shining blade.

"_He'll find his way to me first. I know it."_


	13. Freedom's arrival

"Hey, Ichigo, you're just in time." Karin told him from the "dining room" table as he opened the door.

"Really? That's great." He responded, closing the door and walking over to the empty spot at the table.

"So did you two talk about what you needed to discuss?" His father asked him while setting the plates of food down on one side as Yuzu did the same on the other.

"Uh, yeah. I hadn't seen him in a while so it took a little while."

"Was that guy some kind re-enactor? He had a sword in his belt."

"Yeah. He's from the stage group. I helped move props and scenery and stuff around at one of their plays one time and he wanted to know if I could do it again. He had to tell me about the plot of the story too, for some strange reason." He stated while sitting down at his seat, everyone having already done so.

"I figured as much. It was either _that _or he was some sort of special swordsman who'd come here to do battle with you." His father responded, though the last part of the sentence was spoke with some humor.

"_Not far off."_ Ichigo thought.

"Yeah, right. I asked him why he had that sword in his belt when he was outside school and he said it was to help him stay in character."

"It sounds like he's really committed to his part."

"You got that right. He's so obsessed with it he'd probably kill whoever his enemy was in the play in real life."

"I sure hope not. Especially if you're going to help him out." Karin added as Yuzu brought them all utensils and sat in her chair again.

"He must be a good actor; even when I was just standing there I felt as if he was some sort of warrior who'd been swept up in a great war and who might get swallowed by it. Dying in the end for something that didn't even involve him."

Ichigo dropped the fork he'd been starting to pick up back onto the table.

"_Damnit."_ He thought, gritting his teeth.

"What's wrong, Ichigo? Is something the matter?" Yuzu asked him worriedly.

He glanced at her and then bowed, his head centimeters from the plate's food.

"I'm sorry everyone. Please excuse me, it's an emergency." He apologized, quickly getting up from his chair and running to the door.

"Ichigo!"

"I'm sorry, someone could be in danger!" He apologized again, closing the door behind him as he ran in the direction of Chad's house again.

"_He's right. Regardless of what his objective is, Grimmjow isn't a part of whatever war's going on. __And if the man who stole his sword if part of that 'race' then someone could get killed over nothing."_

He ran towards Chad's once more, wondering what he would do once he got wherever Grimmjow was headed.

* * *

The wind was blowing loudly and strong, pushing and pulling at whatever it could touch.

Luckily, this high up in the skyline, all that was available were stout, strong buildings and flags firmly affixed to metal poles as well. Those things, and Grimmjow Jeagerjaques; the most immovable object of them all.

It was dusk now, and atop one of the city's multitudes of skyscrapers he stood, his gaze fixed on a building with a glass floor at the top, one that almost looked like a greenhouse.

He felt it. His sword was close by. In that skyscraper. There wasn't a single thing between him and his sword that could stop the proud Arrancar from reaching it and taking it back. No more playing around; this was a fight to reclaim something that he wouldn't be without and nothing, be it Kurosaki, Solomon or that freaky vampire chick, could get in his way.

He dove off the skyscraper he stood atop, heading towards the entrance of the building.

It was entirely possible to destroy the bottom of the building with a Cero. But he didn't want that. Regardless of whether it killed them or allowed them to escape, the people who'd stolen his sword would be getting off easy. Grimmjow was going to get his sword back, and he was going to make the people who'd stolen it pay for what they'd done.

* * *

A heavenly tune wafted throughout the greenhouse, entrancing all things within it; chiropterans and plants alike. The song delicately stroked the glass walls that kept the room stable and contained, as if asking the glass if the wind could come in and listen as well, and carry the song to the rest of the world on its limitless wings.

Plants swayed ever so slightly, either in fear or absolute awe of the pitch and tone which reverberated beautifully throughout the whole floor of the building. Long-dead fossils almost seemed to come back to life, the secret song whispering a secret to them that seemed to call old memories, immaculate and horrible, back from their tomb beneath the floor.

Diva's arms floated in the air, held aloft by an energy completely beyond her control as her body shaped and molded to the song's every verse and note, her eyes closed to increase the all-encompassing experiencing.

Her chevaliers sat at the table listening as well and just as caught up in the blissful and yet tormenting requiem of a more than century old being.

The song's pitch raised significantly, threatening to shatter the glass of the greenhouse and pull a kamikaze wind into the building. And then the singing stopped, and the spell was broken. The memory disappearing and leaving behind nothing, as if nothing had been there to begin with.

Diva's eyes opened and her mouth closed, not an ounce of her breath lost over the beautiful and yet tragic song that had so entranced everything in the room.

"Absolutely marvelous singing as always, Diva dear. I hope you will bring such a heart-filled performance at the shows I've set up for you as well."

"Of course, Nathan. I would fill the whole _world _with my song if I could."

"I can think of nothing more splendid. The _entire _world able to hear that immaculate voice of yours. I wish it were already so."

She smiled at his praise, looking at Solomon.

"Did you like it, Solomon?" She asked him.

"Of course, Diva. I don't believe there is a single creature in the world that could not."

Her smiled deepened and she closed her eyes, leaning back against a column.

"I wonder… if _Saya _would like my song."

Solomon's smile lessened somewhat and though she could not see it the girl seemed amused at the change in expression nonetheless.

"Even more…" She began, opening her eyes and staring off into the sunset.

"I wonder if that man would as well."

"You mean the young man you played with earlier today? I'm sure he would agree that your voice is nothing short of perfection."

She giggled under her breath, a unique thing that she had taken a liking to doing when feeling playful.

"Oh you're just saying that Nathan. It's okay though, because I know how much you love my song."

Her eyes drifted to the sword that lay imbedded at the far end of the room, directly opposite the elevator by several dozens of yards.

"He's here." She stated before an explosion could be heard at the bottom of the building.

"Are you sure it's _him_? It could be Saya and the Red Shield." Nathan stated, as calm and smiling as she was.

"No. I can feel when he is close. And I can feel when _Saya _is close. She is nearby… but it is him."

Solomon stood up, walking towards the elevator.

"Where are you going, Solomon? Don't you want to stay here and protect mother?"

"I shall leave that to you, Nathan. I will intercept him and attempt to suppress him and his violent tendencies before he meets her again. We can't have him tearing up the sky-high abode our Diva loves so well." He spoke, calling the elevator.

"Besides, if he wishes to harm Diva then he won't make it within ten _floors _of her before he's defeated." He stated as the elevator opened and he stepped into it, the doors closing behind him and soon taking the chevalier down towards the man.

Diva purred something that approached humorous satisfaction.

"You seem awfully eager to see this man again, Diva. Tell me, is there something about him that you like so?"

She continued gazing off into the sunset.

"He's free."


	14. Rematch

A bunch of guards formed a tight group a few yards from where he'd blown in the front of the lobby, aiming their guns at him.

"_Teh. This isn't going to help. Most of the people in this building can't even see me. And it doesn't __make me feel any better beating around people who can't even fight me."_

"You! On the floor! Now!" One of them commanded him, causing one of Grimmjow's eyebrows to raise.

"You can see me?" He asked semi-rhetorically.

"Get down on the floor! I won't ask again!"

"Pah. What a bother." He remarked, flicking up a hand and launching a Bala at the group of men, blasting a hole through the group and sending all of those who _hadn't _been struck by the energy to cascade into a nearby wall or the floor, no one getting up from the impact.

Grimmjow looked around and spotted two elevators past a desk and opposite the entrance he'd just made for himself. Using his Sonido he was by them in an instant. As soon as he'd reached them the doors of both of them opened, some kind of motion sensor. The Arrancar randomly chose one of them and entered it, soon closed in the red-paneled elevator by its doors.

Turning towards the buttons, he pressed the one with the number "40" on it; the highest number. It was strange though, since this tower must have been taller than forty stories, high though that would have been.

"_How were those weaklings able to see me? For that matter, what about those losers at that clothing __store?" _He thought to himself as the elevator began its ascent. It didn't really matter; he could handle any human that came at him without breaking a sweat. But it was strange that such weak people could see him. His wounds had healed significantly, and he was as close to full strength as he could be in only a few days. So he had no idea why average humans could see him.

More importantly, though, Solomon, that girl, and probably the bastard who'd stolen his sword to begin with would probably be somewhere in this building. Between him and his sword.

"As a matter of fact it seems like one of them would be waiting for me right about-" He began with a smirk.

The elevator doors opened as it arrived at a large, long room. A blonde, white-suited man many yards opposite him at the other end of the room.

"Now." He finished, walking out of the elevator and hearing the doors close behind him.

Any possible feelings of irritation he could have felt at not being on the floor his sword was on were extinguished when he saw an all-glass elevator behind Solomon, the blonde.

He briefly examined the room as he took a few more steps into the room. Dark-grey tile floor with a deep red carpet that led from one end of the room to the other made up the bottom, while two long glass walls and more red-paneling made up the left and right, and front and back walls respectively made up the sides. A black ceiling with a chandelier in the middle was all there was to the ceiling.

"Nice room you've got here. I hope you didn't tire your legs out standing here waiting for me."

"Not at all. I arrived only a minute or so before you did."

"Terrific."

Neither of them said anything for several moments. Then Grimmjow spoke up.

"Where's my sword?"

"The elevator behind me leads to the floor that your sword is on. Diva awaits there as well."

His smirk disappeared, replaced by a curious frown.

"Who?"

"Our queen and mother-"

"The vampire chick. Got it. Though she's a bit young to be a mother isn't she? Either that or her legs swing open easier than saloon doors." He responded, his smirk returning.

Solomon closed his eyes.

"Your taunts have no effect on me. Neither she nor I are as young as we seem. And we are _far _past the age where we will succumb too such boorish comments."

"So in other words you were about to spend some special time with a box of tissues when I came here. I guess I could've had better timing.

The blond sighed, opening his eyes.

"That's enough." He spoke as if he were tired.

"I'm afraid I must kill you now. I don't believe my ears can endure anymore immature rabble."

"Ha! Then come on blondie!"

Solomon's arm transformed and he dashed across the room, swinging the sword arm and sending one of those air-slices at him.

Both of Grimmjow's hands shot up and each fired a Bala. The two crimson orbs soared through the air as the air-slice did the same thing and both it and one of the orbs collided, terminating in a quick burst of air. However, the second one continued on its trajectory towards Solomon and the blonde had to avoid it to keep from getting seriously damaged.

The place that he dodged to, though, was already inhabited by a blue-haired arrancar, who grabbed the "soft" part of his sword arm and aimed his other free hand at the blond man's face, the energy in front of his palm emanating with a red glow.

"See ya, Solomon!" He remarked with flared eyes and a massive smirk.

His opponent seemed only temporarily surprised. Then his other hand became like the sword one and cut his own arm off, falling backwards and swinging the arm back through the air, sending another blast of air at Grimmjow that he had to release the Cero prematurely to stop.

His smirk had disappeared once again and his expression was calmer.

"You'd cut off your own arm to avoid getting hit?" He asked flatly.

The inhuman man stood a few yards away from him, blood stains on the right side of his suit. He wasn't bleeding, nor breathing hard.

"I don't know how powerful that attack of yours is. And I can put the arm back on whenever I get ahold of it again."

"_Really_?" He asked, tossing the arm through the air and launching a Bala at it.

Immortal or not, no one would just let one of their limbs get destroyed when they could stop it and Solomon was no different; he flashed through the air with that blue mirage that he liked so much and grabbed the thing before moving away.

Grimmjow lunged at the man's new location and grabbed both bladed arms with his hands, his Hierro protecting them from getting cut off. They strained to push the other off-balance. Though Solomon showed no signs of effort and Grimmjow was smirking once again, both covering up any trace of exertion there may have been.

But as they struggled Grimmjow felt his skin trembling, something Solomon seemed to notice as well.

"You have wounds that haven't fully healed yet." He stated in monotone.

"Heh. What of it?" Grimmjow responded with confidence.

"Your skin appears to be very tough. But it can't withstand the strain you put on it forever. Even if you _can _beat me you have no hope of defeating Diva with such wounds."

He snarled and pushed Solomon back.

"I don't care what you say! I'm stronger than _anyone_!" He roared, kicking the blond in the stomach and sending him tumbling back, surprised at the attack for some reason.

With a speed normally impossible Grimmjow lunged forward and punched him square in the jaw, bashing him out through the thick glass of the walls and knocking the man several yards out with forty stories between him and the ground.

His punching hand didn't return and instead charged up a Cero, firing it at the white-suited man before he could make it back to the room.

The enemy was completely engulfed in red light and energy, the Cero eradicating the floor and ceiling in its way as it blasted out into the sky outside the building.

When the light dissipated and his hand came down there was no one else around.

"Is that all you've got?" He asked the air.

There was no response; neither verbal nor physical. He waited for almost a minute but there was no surprise attack. That had been too easy. Grimmjow scanned the area once more before he turned towards the glass elevator, walking along the red carpet, heading for his sword and the other people who stood in his way of retrieving it.


	15. The panther and the queen

Grimmjow passed the chandelier, and saw the glass elevator descending, a man inside it.

"_Another one huh? I wonder if they can feel when someone else like them dies." _He contemplated while approaching the elevator. When it arrived, however, he saw a girly man wearing pink pants, white cowboy boots, some kind of open chest frilly blue shirt and wavy blond hair standing within it.

"_Is this guy for real?" _Grimmjow asked himself in his head, his feet still carrying him across the room towards the elevator as it opened.

"Oh dear, it looks like Solomon got into a bit of trouble." He remarked, a tiny smile on his face as he gazed at the large vacancy of ceiling, wall and floor where Grimmjow's Cero had fired.

"You're another one of those guys?" Grimmjow asked the man, still walking towards him, and now only a few yards away.

"Nathan Mahler; Diva's faithful chevalier." He spoke dramatically while bowing.

"Another 'Diva' groupie huh?" He asked rhetorically, using his Sonido to fly forward, and grabbed the man by his girly shirt before tossing him out the same way he'd done to Solomon, though Grimmjow didn't even bother firing a Cero as he heard the man's melodramatic screams all the way down to the ground.

"And that's that." He remarked, stepping into the glass elevator. There was no button, and for a moment, as the doors closed behind him, he wondered if there was some sort of stupid secret button. But when it suddenly began to rise, though slowly, he guessed that it must just travel between two floors and activate whenever someone was in it.

He rose above the red-paneled wall the elevator had rested in and continued rising, seeing the entire city from the glass "shaft" of the elevator as it rose higher and higher. The sun had already set and all that remained of its light were blue, purple and pink beams coming from the clouds that covered the sky over where the sun had set.

It was a strange view to see, Grimmjow having been a creature that both was born, and lived his entire life in a realm of darkness. There was moonlight, sure. There were also other forms of lighting that were present in Las Noches; Aizen, their lord's, palace within Hueco Mundo. Well, the man that _used _to be his lord anyway. Even when he'd been a member of the Espada he'd despised Aizen for thinking he was better than him.

After he got his sword back, killed all these people, and then defeated Kurosaki, he would go back to Hueco Mundo and grind every one of the Espada and Aizen into the ground.

The elevator reached its destination and the doors slid open, allowing him to walk out. It was some kind of greenhouse, or at least the walls and ceiling made of glass made it feel like one. Fossils of dinosaurs, both complete and individual, lay and stand about the "greenhouse" as if they were décor. An archway lay directly in front of him, rising up a few steps and blocking the rest of the room in front of him from view.

If Solomon had been speaking the truth his sword was only a few yards from him. And, according to the feeling he felt that made his skin tingle, he _had _been.

Grimmjow walked forward up the steps beneath the arch, and ascended them. Not all that surprisingly, at a simple white table, in a simple white chair, sat that girl, "Diva" that he had fought back in Karakura town. She sat in the chair on the opposite side of the table from him and smiled at him.

"You came back to see me." She spoke sociably.

"I came to get my sword. And to kill anyone who wants to keep me from it."

She purred a laugh and leaned forward slightly.

"Well then, it's right behind me, only a few feet."

He looked over her, and saw that she was telling the truth; tt stood impaled in a saber-toothed tiger's skull.

"You gonna get in my way?" He asked her, not moving forward yet.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because if you're _not _I'll wait until _after _I get my sword to chop your pretty little head off."

She giggled, falling back in the chair and pushing it back several feet.

"I see. Well, I suppose I'll get in your way then." She spoke as if deciding carelessly what to get out of a vending machine.

"That's just _fine _with _me_. It's better when I can kill my enemy with my bare hands."

"Then, would you like to play with me?" She asked sensually, getting up from the chair and curtseying.

"You got it!" He roared with a wild grin, lunging forward across the patio and swiping through the chair and table at her, knocking them all into a stone pillar hard enough to cause it to crack. Of course, she was nowhere to be seen. But that was to be expected, and he stood there, still grinning.

"I hear all these guys calling you 'mother' and 'queen'. What'd you do? Bend them over a T-Rex and give them a-"

"Such a rude boy." He heard from behind him and spun around, swinging both of his arms around as if the were rotor blades on a plane's nose, not allowing her to get behind him before he could push off the ground and hop back, his back to a pillar.

"Ha! If you're so polite, then why are you hiding all the time! Just come out here and die like a good little whatever you are!" He taunted further.

Suddenly something blue appeared before him and he readied himself for a strike.

Yet when he felt something soft brush against his cheek he felt stunned. It was a touch she'd used against him, not a strike, yet it somehow seemed so much more effective. This girl, Diva, stood in front of him, caressing his cheek with one of her hands.

His body trembled, and she took that as a queue to reach around the back of his head and pull it down towards her, leaning towards the man's neck.

As she did, two things flew up and grabbed the back of her head by the hair and one of her shoulders. The hands pulled the girl forward and to the left, enabling Grimmjow to open his mouth wide and maul her neck with his teeth, holding her still with his hands as he gripped down with his canines and tore away from her, tearing flesh and muscle from it and causing a huge amount of blood to fall to the floor in a thick splash, slapping against the previously white stone with a *smack*.

She stumbled backwards, holding her neck and breathing hard for a moment as he smirked and spat all of the tissue and blood he'd taken from her into the grass, making sure to get it all out of his mouth. Nevertheless, he smirked a wild, crimson-teethed smirk at her as she held her wound.

"Don't forget, just because something will work _once _doesn't mean it'll work any _more _than once." He reminded the girl, whose eyes fixated on him.

"It's not a whole lot of fun, is it? Being drained of blood by someone. It ticked me off royally when you did the same thing to me so I figured I'd have to pay you back. Looks like it weakened you a lot too."

Her hand came away, revealing that her neck was completely healed, though the loss of blood obviously had taken its toll on her.

She said nothing.

"I guess it's time to finish this up. All this talking's ruining my appetite for this." He mused, concentrating all of his body mass as much as possible and launching himself from the grass towards her.

The girl was too weak to avoid the attack, and prepared herself as he launched at her like a cannonball-

-and felt his skin burst open all over his body. Grimmjow's eyes widened to the size of dinner-plates, as did the girl's as his body suddenly succumbed to the injuries it had managed to cover all the way until now.

The world seemed to move in slow motion as he continued through the air, but now was doing so as a limp, weak-bodied human that was traveling downward just as quickly as he was _forward_. Time returned to normal, and fell, face first, down into the grass.

His body was completely still as blood spilled from the numerous cuts and gashes, the nervous system too damaged to move. He faced downward, his eyes blank, none of the previous fiery spirit behind his eyes.

After a moment, the girl's body relaxed and she walked forward a step, the small movement enough to bring her within reach of him.

"Poor boy, to have come all this way just to die like this." She spoke in pity, not able to see his face.

"I wonder if my blood will even _revive _your kind." Diva wondered.

His body went through a spasm for a second, and then returned to normal.

"How sad… too weak to even remain awake as you die." She further thought to herself, sounding genuinely sad despite the harsh sound of her words.

And life returned to his eyes, as did it to his body, the thing trembling in hatred as he struggled to move it.

"Don't you…_**dare** _look down on me!" He growled at her, groaning in pains and aches as he forced his will throughout his body and managed to push him self up on his arms.

"You think I'm dead? That you _killed _me?!" He demanded from her, pushing forward off the ground with his arms and clocking her in the cheekbone with one of his fists, sending both of them to the ground, though several feet from each other.

Both of them breathed hard as they struggled to stand, Diva having sustained less damage but Grimmjow's strength fueled by his rage. Their hands and shoes pushed through the grass and got pieces of it and dirt on them as they fought to stand. Eventually they both did so, if not at the same time close enough that neither of them had an advantage over the other.

"If you keep being so rough… I might not bring you back." She spoke breathlessly.

"Like I care." He spoke, just as winded as she was.

"You can take your blood, your powers, your fancy towers and cars and shove 'em all!" He roared before running forward and striking out at her with a palm.

She fell, more than evaded the strike, but managed to put out a leg to stop her descent swiped at him with an open hand, the strength behind the "slap" enough to crack the ribs that it hit.

"Agh!" He grunted, grabbing her hand and pulling the girl forward, kneeing her in the chest with enough force to raise her off the ground, and then elbowing her in the back, cracking whatever it had hit and sending her face first into the grass.

Her body trembled as well, though whether it was out of strain or hatred was anyone's guess, as one of her hands shot out and grabbed his calf, digging her nails into it through his pants and making him grind his teeth together in pain.

The leg tore itself from her grip and the other one launched forward and kicked her in the side of the face, knocking her over and causing the girl to roll away before rolling into the corner of a display case, facing up.

His entire body gave a big breath as he struggled to remain standing.

Grimmjow panted like a dog with its tongue held in and reared around, spinning like a drunk and facing away from the girl, towards his sword. Though his body was exhausted, his determination remained unyielding, and he forced himself into a fast stumble towards it.

However, as the world seemed to shake and rock from his dazed view he heard someone growl and run towards him, ramming into the side of his back before he could reach the blade and causing him to grunt, both of them flying forward again into the grass, on opposite sides of the katana.

Neither of them moved, as much from preparation as out of exhaustion. Whoever got control of the sword was going to be the winner, and they both knew it.

Their hands clenched at the same time and they both dove up from the ground for the weapon.

Grimmjow reached it first, and pulled the weapon up, just in time to have the skull torn from the tip of it and for the blade to receive a kick from one of Diva's shoes, falling through the air and skidding along the glass display cabinets in it.

He move towards it only to have the same withdrawn skull thrown into his face, the aged bone shattering upon impact as he stamped into the ground and dove a hand back into the skin atop her ribs, digging his nails into the dress and the flesh and twisting, causing both to tear and weakening her enough for him to push her away before continuing to stumble towards his blade.

The desperate Arrancar neared the hilt and bent down to reach for it before he groaned in anguish at having two large teeth imbedded in his back.

Once again he reached back towards her, but this time she grabbed the arm with both of her hands and bit _his_.

He roared in fury, the effort taking as much out of him as everything else so far had but invigorating the man's spirit enough for him to thrust the other hand forward and grab her hair, throwing her face-first down through the display glass and reaching for his sword once again.

Diva coughed as she twisted around on the ground and sliced him across the chest with a piece of glass.

Blood spat from his mouth as he kicked her between the legs and reached down, grabbing her shirt by the neckline and chucking her down into the ground, ripping the shirt's neckline off in his hands as once again she was crushed down into the dirt.

Grimmjow reached for his sword once more, not bothering to deal with the piece of glass that was thrust through his left calf as he gripped the handle and spun, slicing through the air and forcing the girl to fall back into the ground once again, facing upward and her pale breast heaving from the overdrive her heart was going through as anxiety built on tension.

His breathing slowed to almost normal, the blade's point aimed at her throat.

"_Teh. I had to use my sword after all." _He thought, the statement as close as he was going to get to congratulating her on her effort to win.

He stepped forward, and closed the point to her neck.


	16. The panther's reasoning

Sorry about that; I'd been reading a bit of the story and the chapter I posted was the one I'd stopped at, so I guess I foolishly, subconsciously thought that it was the right one. Good news is, there'll be another post now. Bad news is, likely no post next week since it'd be for the one I already posted.

* * *

"Why haven't you done it yet?" She asked him, still expecting it. He was too. And didn't know why himself. There wasn't an urge to leave her alone or anything. He'd just… lost interest. It took a few moments, but he eventually lowered the blade away from her and allowed himself to step back shakily, sitting on the ground after bending his knees enough to allow him to fall into a sitting position.

Grimmjow slid his sword back into its sheath and leaned forward a bit, resting.

"I don't know. Just drop it." He told her, trying his best to ignore all the pain he felt now that he wasn't completely focused on getting his sword back or killing her.

She struggled to sit up, not seeming to care that the neckline of her shirt, which had been low to begin with, had been torn off.

"I thought you wanted to kill me."

"I did."

"But now you don't?"

"I told you to drop it. Since I spared your life you should at least be able to do _that_."

She remained silent for a few seconds, and then she seemed to notice something.

Grimmjow closed his eyes just in time to momentarily feel the pain in his left leg soar, and flashed his eyes, open, ready to cut her head from her neck again. The girl withdrew the piece of glass that she'd pulled from his calf and set it beside her like any other object.

He relaxed and sighed, running a hand through his hair as he decided which source of pain to pay more attention to, ignoring it not being an option.

"What is your name?" She asked him, earning a glance.

"Why do you care?"

"I want to know."

He scoffed and looked away, not saying anything for over a minute. Yet she didn't seem impatient or expectant of him to respond.

"Grimmjow Jeagerjaques."

"Hm."

"What is it?" He asked irritably, as if she'd just laughed at him.

"It's a special name. I've never heard anything like that before."

"Yeah?" He asked rhetorically, staring off at the no-longer existent sunset.

"My name is-"

"I already know what your name is. Diva right?" The Arrancar asked her without much of an interest behind his tone.

"…yes."

"I heard your boy toys say it enough times to remember it for the rest of my life."

She almost laughed, though instead she just smiled.

"You're funny."

"Huh."

His gaze drifted from the dark purple clouds, the last signs of light, and searched until they found the crescent moon, fixating on it. For a moment memories of his "past life" came back to him; hunting other Adjuchas to get stronger and keep from losing himself. But to reminisce about all that now, when it was no big deal, would be stupid.

This girl wasn't like any normal human, and though Solomon and the other guy had acted semi-normal she didn't seem anything _approaching _human in the way she behaved. That wasn't any big deal, since he wasn't human _either_, but it meant she might decide to take another bite out of him if he so much as yawned. But when she moved, it didn't seem aggressive or that strange sort of sensual "vampire movement" either; she only sat next to him and looked at the moon as well.

"You don't have to stick around just because I didn't kill you, you know. I don't care if you're here or not."

She closed her eyes, looking sleepy.

"I like having you here." She spoke unashamedly.

"_What the hell? She goes from trying to tear me apart to being my cuddle-buddy. This girl sure is __strange." _

"Why the hell is that?" He asked, sounding like he didn't he care even though he was genuinely curious, still looking at the moon.

"You're different from everyone else."

"Pah. You like having me here because I'm not a human or whatever you are? I'm not some kind of science experiment."

She opened her eyes and looked at him.

"That isn't what I meant."

"Oh?" He asked, looking away from the moon for a moment to see what she was getting at.

"Everyone else I know is either obsessed with work, with killing my sister, or with killing _me_. It seems like they're chained to something and they always go on about the same thing."

"I just wanted my sword back." He responded, not sounding arrogant or anything over something like that.

She smiled deeper at him, making him feel uncomfortable.

"I know. What do you want to do now?"

Grimmjow looked back at the moon again.

"There's this guy I want to beat. After that I-"

"_What the hell? I don't care about this chick. Why am I telling her anything?"_ He asked himself, getting up after cutting off his sentence.

"It doesn't matter. Don't attack me again, next time I'll probably kill you."

She stood up as well, and he glanced over his shoulder.

"I want you to stay here."

He frowned more than usual.

"It's not your choice. I go wherever I want."

She seemed on the edge of laughing, and stepped forward, raising her hand. But he knew what _that _meant and moved away.

"Forget it. No more banquets."

"I don't want to eat you anymore." She told him from behind.

"Then what the hell _do _you want with me?"

"I want to make you mine."

He felt himself scowl and whipped around, grabbing what was left of the top portion of her dress.

"Listen, I don't belong to _anyone _and I never _will_! I go where I want, do what I want, and _believe _what I want! I don't care if you can fight or _not_; you're not making me your pet."

She seemed surprised, but her expression soon became one of understanding.

"You're right. I _don't _want to make you mine." She reflected, causing him to frown again and back off.

"I don't _know _what I want with you. That's what interests me."

Grimmjow scoffed again and turned away, walking towards the patio and towards the elevator.

"Whatever. Later."

He didn't hear her coming after him, but soon his attention was drawn to something _else_; the sound of the elevator arriving again.

"_Solomon? Or that weird girly guy from before?" _He wondered, continuing to walk at a normal pace.

Soon someone ran up to the patio and he noticed that it looked just like Diva, only with shorter hair, brown eyes and darker skin.

"Diva!" She yelled as if the beaten up girl was some kind of demon. Soon, however, her determination to do whatever she'd come here to do seemed to falter, discovering the girl's condition.

"What- who are you?" She asked him suspiciously, to which Grimmjow just narrowed his eyes.

She held a sheathed katana in her left hand and a man in a dark suit with a passiveness on the opposite spectrum of Solomon walked up beside her.

"I asked you who you are!" She spoke more aggressively.

"What is it to you?" He responded roughly.

"That girl behind you is a monster! You have no idea what she can do!"

"_Yeah, right. I got a full-course cram exam on it."_

"If she's a monster, aren't _you _one _too_?" He questioned, not judging her but pointing out that she'd just called someone she was related to a monster.

"What-"

"Big sister, it's been so long since we've seen each other. How have you been?" Diva asked from behind him as if they'd been having a normal conversation.

"Diva, how can you act that way when you know what I've come here to do?" The girl asked her with a tone approaching both disparagement and non-understanding.

"Oh, you've always got to be so direct. Can't we at least have something to drink together this time before you start chopping away at me?" She asked, talking like her sister had some sort of strange personality quirk that she found amusing. Well, apparently, it was just that.

"I have to kill you, Diva." She spoke.

"Always the same thing from you. What did I ever do to you?" She spoke, still not seeming to take the conversation seriously.

Grimmjow was starting to get a little ticked that they were just ignoring him.

"You've murdered countless people and are responsible for the deaths of many more. _That's _what you've done!"

"But I never tried to kill _you _did I? Oh wait, that one time back in France-"

"Enough talking! I have to do this!" Her sister declared, drawing the sword from its sheath.

"What the hell's wrong with you?" Grimmjow asked the idiotic sister, catching her off-guard.

"You 'have' to do it? You don't _have _to; you _want _to!"

The girl scowled, throwing the sheath behind her and bringing her sword out in front.

"What do _you _know about _me_?!"

"So far, nothing impressive. You're so naïve I'm surprised you're not lime green."

Diva giggled from behind him, but he ignored her.

"If you think you've got to kill her then you're an idiot. It's that simple."

"You have no idea what she's done! All the people-"

"Whine, whine. Blame, blame. Yadda, yadda, yadda. That's all you know how to do isn't it?"

She went silent after that, though he noticed she seemed to be getting pretty ticked.

"_Good. The stupid bitch should be. Acting all high-and-mighty like that."_

"Look. I don't care what she did that made you so whiny. Get out of my way. I'm leaving."

"You're leaving so soon?" Diva asked him from behind. He didn't even bother turning to respond.

"I already told you, I'm tired of this place. I've got stuff I want to do. This stupid chick is _your _problem."

"I'll give you a kiss on the cheek if you make her go away." The girl offered him teasingly, causing him to scoff.

"You don't have anything I want."

"Really? Nothing at all?"

"Nothing."

"Hm. I guess you're more like a little boy than I'd thought."

"Shut up. Don't look down on me."

"Don't be so grim."

It took a second before he got it.

"Ha. Ha. Ha." He fake-laughed, the girl genuinely going into a giggling fit. This was the time that her sister chose to attack, and she ran across the garden towards her sister, her sword raised.

Diva stopped laughing, and stared at her sister, not moving. What was that? Was she going to counter? Nah, she was too weak to move that fast or block the sword. Was she _afraid_? No, that wasn't it either. Then what _was _it?

The brown-eyed twin reached the blue-eyed one and he sighed.

"_Damnit." _He thought.

Her sword clashed with another and he strained, despite how weak she was, to stop the sword from descending any more.

"I hate to say it, but I don't really know what's up with _you either_." He told the weakened twin who stood to his right, smiling at him.

"I guess I'll keep you alive until I leave. If only because this other moron's so stupid." He remarked before pushing the girl, and her sword, back several feet.

'Why are you protecting her?!" The sister demanded.

"Who says I'm _protecting anyone_? I just don't like you. So I think I'm gonna punch you out the window."

The instant he said that Grimmjow felt someone behind him, most likely that guy in the suit. He stepped forward and spun about, whirling his sword around him in a full circle to discourage anyone from attacking him and giving the Arrancar enough time to decide who to attack.

"_That stupid chick first." _He thought, striking out at her with his katana. She blocked, but the force behind the attack knocked her off balance, something he took advantage of to rush forward and ram her to the ground. This happened just quick enough for him to have the opportunity to roll away to avoid getting smashed in the back of the head by a large metal case. But in the process he felt his wounds start to gush blood again and he was stunned for a moment when he came up from the roll, the loss of blood was beginning to affect his senses. Not enough though that he didn't notice the man coming at him again.

Grimmjow fired a Bala to discourage him from attacking, but instead of backing off the guy moved around it and attacked him with the case from his side. He blocked with his katana, but that gave the girl an opening to get past him and attack Diva. It didn't really matter. But he hated how she ignored him the first chance she got.

His free hand shot out and grabbed her sword's tsuba, effectively bringing her to a halt as he used all the muscles in his body to hold both attackers at bay.

"Why are you fighting us?! Didn't she cause those wounds?! Why would you defend her?!"

"Just shut up already." He spoke with labored breathing.

"I told you, I'm _fighting _you because you piss me _off_!" He roared, pulling her back and then pushing the girl away and off her feet to land on her rear on the ground.

"Saya!" The man remarked, being distracted for only an instant but long enough for Grimmjow to aim his once-again free hand at him and fire another Bala, forcing the guy to not only back off, but to drop his case in the process.

Once they were together Grimmjow aimed his hand at them again.

"I'm not feeling too good, so I guess I'm going to have to end this quickly." He told them, red energy gathering at the palm of his hand.

"I know you two were all pumped up for a big fight, but when you take out trash you do it the quickest way possible right?" He asked rhetorically as the energy continued to gather.

"Haji." The girl, Saya, called.

He glanced at her and then dove for his case, throwing it at Grimmjow. There wasn't enough time to avoid the attack, and by the time he'd released the Cero the case had already hit him and sent both him and the object flying backwards, and through a glass wall.

"Damnit." He cursed, seeing the red energy of the cero destroy a large portion of the top floor of the building from his bird's eye view outside. That was, a bird's view as it fell towards the ground fifty stories below like some kind of rock.

His vision faded, the case having been the "last straw" for his body.

Grimmjow lost consciousness before he'd even fallen five stories.


	17. Inexperienced

They'd ended up in some kind of underground, empty storage room. At least that's what Grimmjow figured.

On her way out, Diva had turned on a light; a light-switch attached to a single naked hanging bulb. Then again, neither of them really cared about aesthetics so it could've been a _chandelier _for all _they _cared.

Another sign that they were in some abandoned place underground was that the "water" she was getting apparently had been coming from a faucet somewhere in the room or hallway outside. He could hear her turn it on.

"_Wouldn't surprise me if it was cold lava in a radioactive glass when she brings it back to me." _He thought, wondering what kind of "caretaker" skills someone like her could even _have_.

Grimmjow had momentarily tried to get at his sword again but the reason she'd left it so close to him remained evident; he still couldn't move.

He heard her shoes on the concrete floor, as well as saw her silhouette splayed on it as she came closer to the doorway-

-cupping her hands together and dripping a small amount of water from them.

"_There's no way this girl is that stupid." _He thought, unbelievingly. But it seemed she either _was _or just enjoyed messing with him. The answer being _both _of them was certainly possible too.

"Here you go." She spoke with a smile and allowing the water to fall into his mouth and throat. Of course, even an _idiot _could tell what would happen next. He wondered what that made _her_.

Grimmjow went into a coughing fit as his throat struggled to empty the fluid down the right path.

Diva knelt down next to him and pulled him into an upright position to help the water go down. This, unfortunately, resulted in her gripping one of the wounds on his back to do so and causing him to groan beneath his breath in pain.

"Oops." She remarked, setting him down again.

"Just get the hell away from me!" He yelled at her loudly. Almost louder than he'd intended.

She shrank away, not showing signs of embarrassment or humiliation, but her eyes became glazed over with sadness.

"_Terrific. She almost makes me drown and opens another one of my wounds and the girl starts __feeling sorry for herself."_ He thought irritably.

"Sorry." She apologized.

Grimmjow looked away from her in irritation, trying to think of anything he could do but get unintentionally tortured by this girl.

"Do you want me to get you a pillow? There is a sack of something over there-"

"They're potatoes. It'd be like sleeping on rocks covered in carpet. I'll pass."

"How about a blanket then?"

"What? A dusty old tarp? I think I'd rather be cold."

"My, you're pretty picky."

He scoffed.

"All I want right now, since you won't give me my sword back, is for you to leave me _alone_." Grimmjow responded roughly.

Diva looked down at the ground, saying nothing.

"Why are you in 'maternal' mode _anyway_? It doesn't seem like you to be doting on what I'd want."

"I wanted to be able to take care of someone-"

"Well you're not doing a good job. If you want to 'take care' of me give me my sword back and stop wasting my time lying here with you. Instead you're treating me like a friggin' _baby_."

She remained silent. But Grimmjow was ticked. This girl was going to make him lie completely still for two or more whole days with nothing to do but let her gradually kill him and pretend like he was a doll or something, and he wasn't going to stop there.

"I sure hope you never have any. If you even can, because you'd be a terrible friggin' mother." He spat.

The girl recoiled as if struck, and held herself like she was cold.

"I'm trying-"

"And you're crappy at it. You know what? Just leave me here to die. I'd have a better chance of surviving without you around. Plus it'd be less annoying."

She stood up, not looking at him.

"I'm… going to go take a walk."

"Good."

She left the room silently, her steps sounding quieter than before, as if she was making a deliberate effort to be quieter for his sake. Soon the footsteps had disappeared completely and he sighed.

"That took a whole lot more than I'd thought it would. The girl's got a mental hide as thick as a regular hollow." He reflected, staring up at the ceiling.

It was strange how much the last insult had bothered her, as if she expected to be a mother soon or something.

"I doubt some random teeny would be stupid enough to knock up a moronic vampire chick. Then again, who knows? Kids can be pretty stupid."

* * *

She walked down the hall, not really paying attention to where she was going as her feet carried her further away from him.

"_That wasn't very nice. I was trying to be kind to him and he was mean." _She thought, not understanding how this worked. Diva was _sure _that that was how humans acted; they tried to be nice to someone and the other one had to be nice back. Maybe it was because he wasn't a human. Or maybe there was just something wrong with her in that way.

Throughout her entire life, Diva had never cared about things like that. After all, she'd never tried to be particularly nice to anyone in specific before. But now that she had babies that were going to be born soon, not being able to take care of someone she was trying to be nice to rattled her. After all, she knew nothing about caring for others. How would she take care of her babies if she had no idea _how _to?

Those thoughts swirled around in a jumble in her normally clear mind as Diva opened a door in front of her.

Light came down on her and she realized this must be the exit to the outside; the first signs of dawn's light was shining and she noticed someone-

-shoot her.

Diva fell back a foot, planting one of her shoes on the floor as a *splat* of her blood landed on the floor behind her. Normally getting shot did nothing to her. But she still had as little blood as before, and it almost felt like the wound wasn't closing up as she noticed a man with blond hair, a revolver, and a black-and-white suit aiming said revolver at her.

He fired once more, catching her in the shoulder as she closed the door and locked it. Another bullet struck the metal door, but didn't penetrate it.

Diva breathed heavily and made her way back the way she'd come as quickly as she could.


	18. Warmth

It felt cold. She didn't know why.

Her body didn't tremble; she had been much colder than this before and its threshold for reacting to pain, cold, heat, damage, and the like was beyond most could or would ever _want _to be able to go.

The girl's eyes opened, seeing what was in front of her, and she remembered why.

"_One of Saya's friends shot me, and I was weak. I came here and-"_

Something was different. She felt something _warm_ among this constant chill that she felt.

Her insides felt like snow piled into a container, her skin felt as if water had been dumped onto her and then froze before it could wash off, but her _hand _felt something warm enough to make the other feelings not seem so bad. Diva blinked a few times to see what it actually was; it was Grimmjow's hand. It wasn't holding hers, it was the other way around, but he hadn't pushed her away or anything.

Had he just fallen asleep? Or maybe he'd _let _her keep her hand on his. Regardless, she managed a weak smile, and dragged her way across the floor to him, despite them only being about a foot away.

The blue-haired man was sleeping, his back up against a wall, and had his sword crossed in front of him as if to ward off any passersby. Even now, while he was asleep, the man looked like he was on guard for anything that intended to attack him. Yet despite how "tough" he seemed she still found him rather cute.

"_I wonder if he'll ever like me." _She contemplated.

All the chevaliers she'd ever made had always been humans who'd lived human lives. They supported her and protected her, but it was only because they "had" to; their blood compelled them to protect and serve her. Lower chiropterans were a bit different, but since they were of her blood they had always left her alone. Humans, meanwhile, were all afraid of her or hated her. She'd never found even one single person who'd liked her. And yet, while this man had spent the majority of time that they knew each other trying to tear her apart, something she wasn't really upset about, for some reason she got the feeling that he was different than everyone else; that he was like _her _in in some way.

There was something about him that was… sad.

Grimmjow stirred in his sleep and she backed up a bit, seemingly afraid of him discovering her so close to him. It surprised her that she'd done this, but when he didn't awaken, she moved forward again. He didn't seem to notice the movement or the vibrations that her hand put into his as she did so, getting closer and closer to him until they were right next to each other.

Diva stuck her free hand forward, as if she were a cat playing with the idea of stalking something, and moved over him. Though he once again stirred, bringing his sword tighter against his chest, she didn't back off this time, and moved forward more until she could feel his breath blowing against her face.

She gazed down at him, and saw his eyelids tremble, like he was having some kind of a bad dream. The sleepy girl smiled at how cute he was being and lowered herself further down towards him, a long strand of her hair falling down from behind her ear and dropping to touch his ear. His head moved away from her, despite the fact he couldn't have known what was going on while he was sleeping, and she smiled that much more, lifting one of her legs up over him and setting it down on the other side of his stomach as she touched the back of his head with her hand before placing her lips against his. He didn't kiss back, but it didn't bother her, she held it for several moments before backing away again, but this time laying on him, holding onto the man as she fell asleep again, feeling warm.

* * *

The Arrancar was aware of something as he awoke; there was something on top of him. What the hell it could be momentarily eluded him as he doubted that if the ceiling had caved in on him that he would have slept through it. When Grimmjow opened his eyes, he saw what it was, and found it even _more _undesirable than having the ceiling cave in on him..

"_What…the…hell?…" _He thought, staring down at the girl that lay over him like a drape. It was weird that he hadn't woken up when she did this, but it didn't really matter, what _he _wanted to know was what the hell she was doing.

He felt weird, having someone touching him like this. Whenever he'd slept in Hueco Mundo- when he'd slept in _Las Noches _Grimmjow had always slept alone, with no one even remotely close to him, and that was the way he liked it. If someone else lay with you who knew if they might be aiming to tear your throat out? The biggest problems to deal with were ones that you didn't even know about; the scar on his chest from Kurosaki's Getsuga Tensho from their first encounter was proof enough of that.

Grimmjow sat there, with the girl draped around him, unable to move and caught somewhere between hatred and confusion.

"_I could blow her away right now. I might just get my clothes singed and she'd be dead. She's air-__headed but she has to know that. So why?"_

Why was this girl, who knew he didn't like her and would kill her if she ticked him off, lying on top of him like he was some kind of giant teddy bear

Eventually he decided to simply wake her up by shaking her with his free hand. The other one, he noticed, was still being held onto tightly by one of her own.

She awoke, and looked up at him with a sleepy expression.

She was smiling. It wasn't one of the smiles she'd shown him before. Those were all just signs of her interest or amusement at things. They weren't anything more than skin-deep. But _this _one looked like she was genuinely showing some kind of happiness. He didn't like it. In fact, he _hated _it.

This girl was a lot easier to be a jerk to when she seemed like some random psychopathic vampire chick with no morals. Seeing her give a genuine expression of any real feeling made him uneasy.

For some reason, he couldn't tell her to get the hell off of him.

"A bit _cold _are we?" He asked her, his tone flat.

She shook her head.

"Not now. You're very warm."

Grimmjow looked away.

He didn't blush.

"Couldn't you have just found some blankets or something?" He asked with the same tone as before.

"I don't know where any are. Besides…" She spoke, gaining his interest right before she nuzzled against his chest.

"I would much rather sleep here with you."

He growled, more to himself than to her, and looked away again.

"If you hadn't picked such a cold little room to coop us up in in the _first _place it wouldn't have been a problem to _begin _with."

"But I did, and here I am." She spoke happily, obviously not caring.

"What, you _like _being stuck in a room, unable to do anything?" He questioned her, ignoring what she'd actually been referring to happily. However, it seemed to be a much stronger comment than he'd _thought_, as she looked back down, her smile going away.

"No. I… don't like staying in one place very long."

"Why's that?" He asked, _his _turn to show a non-caring tone, though it didn't hold any happiness in it when it came from him.

"I told you before, about being locked up in a place for a long time. It reminds me of back then."

"Why didn't you play some kind of little game then? Someone like _you _must have like a _thousand _of them."

"I didn't know how to play games. I didn't know what they _were_."

"What're you talking about? It's not like you were locked up your whole _life_."

She said nothing, and his expression tightened; he gained interest, and began taking it seriously.

"How long?"

"Around thirty years, I think."

"When'd you get locked in there?"

"When I was born."

"_Hell." _He thought. This was the first thing he'd actually felt _sorry _for her over.

"So you grew up in a room…" He stated, thinking about it.

Diva looked away, as if in shame for some reason.

"I was barely alive. I didn't have anything to do. I only got to see one person on a regular basis. He ended up being my chevalier later on. But then…"

She smiled again, but it looked so ridiculously sad that it couldn't have possibly have come from anyone normal.

"_She _found me."

"Who the hell's _she_?"

"Saya. My sister."

He blinked, now officially not knowing jack about what was going on.

"Wait, you mean the same chick that was saying 'I must kill you, hiya!'? _Her_?"

Diva attempted to giggle, but didn't pull it off very well.

"Yes, well, she wasn't always like that."

"What'd you do? Steal her juice box or something?"

She did a little better at laughing this time.

"No. When she let me out one day I left the tower, and I found a lot of humans outside, around the castle grounds. When they saw me walking around with the large rag that I used for a cloak, they kept saying mean things about me. Everywhere I went it was 'What a dreadful girl' this and 'filthy antisocialist' that."

He could tell she was going somewhere with this story.

"I saw my chevalier-to-be, Amshel, eventually, and he told me that these humans were all inferior to me, that if I wished to be happy, I must kill them. I didn't know what 'killing' _was_. But when I did the same things that Amshel had done to me while I was in that room, they didn't get any better afterwards and they stayeid dead. And when I saw all of their blood I got really thirsty."

Grimmjow thought he knew how this went.

"So after having people make fun of you and killing them 'cause that's all you knew how to do your sister showed up, not very happy with you."

She nodded.

"I was so happy when I saw my sister again. I hadn't seen her since she let me out of the tower before, and I went to go see her immediately. But when I did she-"

Diva's voice trembled at the last word and her smile had been long gone by now.

"She looked at me like- like I was the most repulsive thing she'd ever seen. My sister and only friend hated me for what I did. And then she swore to kill me."

He sighed.

"_I've gotta admit, messed up or not, this girl's had one hell of a screwed up life."_

"Well, I suppose with an 'I was locked up thirty years since I was born' excuse it makes a bit of sense that you go around killing people."

She shook her head.

"I don't use it as an excuse. It's all I know. I don't know what it was like for Saya; living in a huge open space, able to go wherever she wanted and do whatever she wanted. Being loved and cared for by so many people. I just don't understand it."

"Well you've got all those little chevalier guys of yours. And you can go anywhere you like now. Isn't that pretty much the same thing?"

"I suppose."

He glanced at her, and saw from the look in her eyes that she didn't agree with him at all.

Grimmjow sighed.

"Well, if it makes you feel any better, your sister's an _idiot_."

Diva looked back at him, a small frown on her face.

"She wants to kill you 'cause you're a 'monster' right? The way _I _see it, you didn't act any different from a _human _who'd been locked up for a long time. Except you didn't know what you were doing and didn't understand what it meant to kill something. It was like you were a cat running around killing mice; sure you know they're dying but considering it horrible to kill them isn't even something you can _imagine_."

Her eyes looked at him longingly, as if he were telling her something she'd wanted to hear for a long time.

"Expecting someone who was raised- no, was left alone like a disgusting animal to _die_, to act like one of those carbon-copy good little humans is idiotic. That's why I wanted to beat the hell out of her; she's a naïve little idiot."

"I don't believe she would agree with you, Grimmjow." Diva spoke, a small smile back on her face again.

"Well, if she doesn't act the way I act she's a monster. And I guess that just means I'd have to kill her. It's the only way."

A few seconds of silence passed.

Then Diva began to laugh, giggling down at Grimmjow's chest as even _he _couldn't manage to completely stifle a little chuckle. The laughter only lasted a few seconds, but both were left smiling afterwards.

"Alright, I'll tell you what; I'll make this idiot sister of yours realize how stupid she's being. I'll do that and keep you alive. But after that, I'm gonna go do my own thing. That alright with you?"

"I would be grateful to you, Grimmjow. It would really mean a lot to me."

"Okay then. We'll heal up and then we'll go find your sister."

She lay her head back on his chest, the feeling having been too prolonged now for him to still feel awkward about their contact.

"Thank you."

"You don't have to thank me."

"I know. But… I want to."

He sighed.

"Alright then. You're welcome."


	19. Purity

I'm really sorry I've been doing so terribly with updates. This writer's block is going on _months _now and I've got no idea how to get rid of it. I still get some writing in here and there but... well, I apologize again; it's not excuse for denying people who wait on this story the material they want.

* * *

"No."

"Come on."

" I said _no_!" He responded again, more irritation in his voice.

"Please, Grimmjow? With kisses?"

"It's 'cherries on top' and _no_!"

"Well if you do it I'll give you _kisses_. That's _better _than cherries."

"Yeah, well I prefer giving me some _shots_."

Her head tilted in curiosity.

"Shots?"

"Yeah, it's when you get to take free punches at someone. For me anyway."

Her head tilted more, though it wasn't out of curiosity, as her head looked down.

"Oh… okay."

His gaze snapped back to her and his voice got caught in his throat, prompting a sigh soon after.

"I wasn't being serious. Don't get all sad again. It makes me feel weird."

"Okay! Then hold your arms out like a basketball hoop." She instructed him.

Grimmjow muttered something as he did so.

"If you hit me in the face, I'll kick your-"

"Is this far enough?" Diva asked, at the doorway of the room, an old tennis ball in her hands.

"Yeah, it's plenty. Just throw the stupid thing so we can get this over with. I'm not a toy."

She nodded, bringing the ball up in her hands like she was a pitcher.

It took about half a second to realize that there was no way she was going to get that ball down through his arms like a basketball. Unfortunately, that wasn't quick enough and the tennis ball was thrown directly into his nose.

"Agh! You little-" He roared, springing up from his seated position and whipping around.

"Oooh! Ouch! Are you okay, Grimmjow?" She asked, stifling a giggle.

"I'll show _you _who's okay you little brat. Get over here in my hands!" He yelled at her again, the pressure of his nose returning to a normal enough level for him to run after the little jerk as she ran away giggling. He didn't know where they were going as he chased her around, only that she somehow managed to slip away each time.

Grimmjow charged at her, ramming head first into a wall, then he grabbed at her and scraped his knuckles against a corner of a doorway.

"Argh!" He yelled, picking up the nearest thing he could find and throwing it at her. Diva stopped momentarily to see what was going on, just in time to get hit in the face by a large cardboard box.

It flew up into the air, dumping its contents on her, before falling to the floor.

Laughing started up again, but this time it was _Grimmjow_. He stared, almost hysterical, at the cardboard box that was labeled "used condoms".

"Oh-ho, _man_! That's definitely more than enough payback for _me_!" He laughed.

"Eww." She spoke, her face scrunched up as she plucked random plastic tubes off of her.

"Icky!" She yelled at him, pulling one out from inside her shirt.

Grimmjow continued laughing as he headed back down the hall.

It was just one long hall with rooms branching off from it so eventually he was bound to find the room that his sword was in-

-something kicked him in the rear.

"Argh! You…" His voice trembled in anger as he spun around, staring at the once-again smiling Diva.

"I'll give you a friggin' Bala enema if you keep up that shi-"

She appeared right in front of him, looking up at him with one of those demonically confident and mesmerizing smiles and seriously putting him on his guard. He doubted even _she _would try to attack him after that little thing between them where he said he'd help her out, but it was hard to tell with her.

One of her hands came up, going behind his head and holding his neck, the other going directly to the other side of his neck.

"_No, can't be it._" He thought, since both sides of his neck were covered up now.

It wasn't until this time that he'd realized where her hands were and that she was pushing herself up on her toes, getting closer to him. _This _was way beyond what was going to be going on. Grimmjow grabbed her hands hard enough to show he wanted them off and that he wasn't playing games, before pushing them back over to her, not letting her face get any closer to his.

"Saying I'll help you doesn't mean I'm going to _do _you." He told her bluntly.

Her smile went to a neutral line.

"Why won't you let me do this?" She asked.

"'Cause I don't do that. I don't get into relationships. It's that simple."

"Relationships?" She asked.

"Yeah."

She stared at him almost dumbly.

"Never-mind. I'm just not doing that."

She frowned.

"But why not?"

"First, 'cause you look like a teenager-"

"You only look twenty! That's only a four-year look difference!" She retorted childishly.

"_And_…" He continued.

"You don't even know what the kissing thing is suppose to mean. Third, even if you _did _know and just was in it for the 'grinding' I don't care. I get all the elation I need when I'm fighting. That enough reasons?"

She pouted, crossing her arms.

"I bet you wouldn't be any good _anyway._" She spoke in an effort to upset him, which didn't even phase the Arrancar who had accused her and her chevaliers of getting it on multiple times by now as jokes. Speaking of… that old bearded guy was doing stuff with her? That was just nasty. Hundreds of years old or not, he didn't care.

"Yeah, with your experiences with old dudes and probably like thirteen year-olds I bet you'd know the difference." He responded, almost laughing.

"How did you know about Riku?" She asked.

"About _who_?" He asked, not knowing what the hell she was talking about.

"He was a boy my sister liked."

"_Was_?" He inquired.

"He's dead now." She stated simply.

"Huh. How'd that happen?"

"An accident."

He gave something between a scoff and a laugh.

"Accident huh? What _kind _of accident?" He asked, further curious as to whether or not this girl had actually dropped a piano or a safe on someone or anything like that.

"I found him on a ship. After I made him mine I bit my tongue while kissing him."

One of his eyebrows rose.

"What the hell does 'make him mine' mean and why'd he die just 'cause he got a little blood in his throat?"

"I mated with him, and he was one of my sister's chevaliers. If my blood goes into them they die."

"Huh." He remarked at the second sentence, taking that it was the same the other way around.

"So this kid, Riku, you two had a thing huh?" He asked while turning around again, heading back the way they'd come and hearing her walk right behind him.

"No. I bit him once, and Saya brought him back with her blood. Then I wanted to see him again."

_"By see you mean__ nail, right?" _He asked in his head.

"It seems kinda weird that the little kid would still want to do that with you after you'd almost killed him before."

"He didn't want to. At least not at first."

"Huh?"

"Well, he was a bit shy at first so…" She spoke, getting a smile in her voice again.

This girl really didn't know the difference between shy and "too terrified to do anything" _did _she?

"You mean you raped him." He spoke frankly.

"What's that?"

"It's when you nail- mate with someone when they don't want you to."

"Oh. I don't know."

"Did he do anything back to you when you were doing it?"

"Well, no-"

"Yep. It was rape."

"And what makes you so sure?" She asked, almost sounding kind of serious. Whoever this kid was apparently, in terms of how much she liked people, he was kind of high.

"If he didn't do anything it was because he was too scared to. Which meant he didn't want to. Which meant you raped 'em. It's that simple."

"No, he was just too shy to do anything-"

"Whatever." He spoke, done listening to her talk.

"Why are you upset?" She asked, the endless hall finally starting to look normal again. He was grateful the exit wasn't all that far away otherwise it'd be one hell of an aerobic workout walking that far.

"I don't care about the kid. Didn't know him. But if you made him do what you wanted because you were stronger than him it means you were controlling him. I hate that crap."

"I didn't do it on _purpose_-"

"Sure you didn't."

Her footsteps fell behind and she stomped on the floor, her weakness showing since no cracks appeared in the concrete.

"I _didn't _darnit!"

He shook his head.

"Whatever. Some advice though; try that crap with _me _and it won't go like it did with helpless, wimpy sailor boy."

She seemed to calm down a bit.

"It's just… he had a purity. Everyone else I've seen is so serious or rolled up in some 'cause' or 'mission'. But- you have it _too_."

At _that _he _did _scoff.

"The hell I do. I'm as far from pure as you _get_. I've killed my fair share of humans, hollows, _and _soul reapers and it hasn't always been clean cut. I've eaten pieces of my kind that I traveled with and there's a whole lot more that someone that's mentally as old as you shouldn't hear."

"That's not what I meant. You're pure. Not the same way as Riku. But, you're free; you do what you want when you want and how you want, like me. You're not trapped in a war though."

"Sorry to tell ya, but I _am_. It's just not out in the open and easy to see."

He heard her tighten her hands into fists; her knuckles cracked.

"Why do you do that?" She asked, her tone flat like it usually was when she was being "serious".

"Do _what_? You're being annoying with all the talking."

He saw the large blood splotch outside the open doorway up ahead and knew he was almost there.

"Every time I talk about something, or try to be nice, you always say something mean."

"It's not my job to deal with your complaints, and I don't need your pity."

"It isn't pity." She responded, seeming to have disregarded the "whining" thing.

"You're saying things about me as if they're supposed to make me confident, like I'm too weak without them."

"That's not why I say those things."

"Then _why_?"

"I just want you to like me."

He sighed, making it to the doorway.

"Look, just stay in quiet mode like you did that one time."

It took a moment, but she nodded, sadly, and walked past him, sitting down in the corner farthest from where he would sit.

"_I don't care. Unlike the hundred-whatever year-old teenager chick I don't need someone to rely on to __be able to deal with stuff." _He thought to himself, walking over to his katana and touching it softly, covering it up from her view with his back.

"_Just myself and my sword. That's all I need to crush the whole world down."_

Who cared how she felt? The girl had raped and killed someone she'd _liked _and had said he was like that little kid and he was supposed to be _nice _to her? No way.

Grimmjow was a man of his word, even though he rarely gave it out more than once a decade, so he would do what he'd said he'd do for her. But that would be it. He wasn't riding off into the sunset with her or any of that crap. They got the "job" done, and he was out. That was all there was to it. This chick could die by drowning in her enemies for all he cared.

"_Purity. What the hell's she talking about?"_


	20. Bad dream

She was still asleep, and that was good.

Grimmjow had taken a rest as well, for a few hours, and his wounds had closed up again. They weren't anymore healed than they had been before he began fighting anyone and he knew they would just rip open if he put any real strain on his body like he did before, but for regular training it should be more than adequate.

He made sure that she was actually sleeping, not just faking it, before leaving. Being able to tell things like that was an ability he'd developed stalking other hollows to their nesting grounds. He'd generally preferred to just kill each hollow one by one, but he got a lot stronger much more quickly if he followed them to where their entire group congregated.

Grimmjow walked left down the hall once he was out of the room and followed it all the way to the exit. It was good to see the sun outside, even though he'd grown up amongst nothing but moon. The look of the inside of that place was just so friggin' boring and repetitive it made him feel nauseous after a while. He wasn't an interior designer or anything like that but the place, after being stuck amongst the blandness of its walls and the smell that he'd begun to notice over time, he'd gotten pretty sick of it.

Outside of the building was an old basketball court, which looked like it hadn't been used in years. The whole area was surrounded by brick apartment buildings and he didn't know if even _he _would be able to get on top of them due to their height. There were a few feet of concrete sidewalk along the edge of the fenced-in basketball court and the only exit from the area aside from going into that disposal building he'd just come from was an archway that led out through an alley to a street.

It didn't matter, the basketball court would be plenty big for him to practice.

The sound Grimmjow's shoes made echoed throughout the area, a testament to how high the walls that enclosed this area really were. How that blonde-haired shooter had found them, he had no idea. The area that building had been in was very high-end. While this looked like the inner city or something along those lines.

"_More stupid observations. Who cares about how the place looks?" _

He didn't need to practice, not anymore. He'd gotten more than enough practice with a sword in his recent years as an Arrancar than he'd ever need. The fact that his sword was a direct extension of himself just made it easier to fight with it. But since he didn't eat humans, there wasn't really anything for him to do _other _than practice.

"_I could stay back there and watch over the vampire chick. Yeah that'd be fun." _He thought sarcastically, walking into the middle of the basketball court and drawing his sword from its sheath. His body began putting the sword through its motions, and Grimmjow felt his mind become unfocused, allowing his body to do all the work as he actually began to feel himself go into a dream-like state.

* * *

"_What the hell's with Aizen? Calling us out at a time like this?" _Grimmjow questioned in his mind while walking down a hall of Las Noches. There was no day or night here. There wasn't even really any measurement of _time _in particular. But that didn't change the fact that most, if not all, of the Espada, had been sleeping when they received a summons for a meeting.

The separate halls of the main hall all converged and Grimmjow saw a few other Espada appear from their halls in front of him as they all walked towards the large doors that led to the "meeting room". Someone up ahead pushed the doors open and they all walked into the room, picking random chairs to sit down in. Once they were all settled another set of doors, opposite the ones they'd just come through, opened as well and three men walked through the doorway. The two on the side remained at the doors while the man in the center continued towards the long stone table and sat down in his chair at the end of it.

"Welcome, my dear Espada. I am very sorry to bother you all at this time, when I know you were resting, but I had some matters I wished to discuss."

"Then what is it?" Barragan requested, as arrogant as ever.

"Yeah, I thought we were under attack or something. I'd hate to get out of bed for any reason other than to chop someone up." Nnoitra added.

"Quiet, how is lord Aizen supposed to tell us what is going on if you're complaining?" Harribel spoke, trying to end the talking.

"Don't pop out of your shirt, I'm just saying."

Aizen set his hands on the table, calmly placing them there to make them more comfortable, and there was no more talking, as if a wave of silence had spread out from his palms.

"It has come to my attention that the soul society plans on fighting us this winter. However, I believe they intend to send a form of… assassination party before then to try and kill who they perceive to be as weak Espada."

"I guess that means _you're _out of _luck_ Yammy." Nnoitra joked, to which the Decima, tenth, Espada scoffed.

"I would imagine that Soifon, captain of squad 2, and her stealth squad would be the ones chosen to be sent. But it is certainly possible that other captains may be with them as well." Aizen continued.

Grimmjow normally might have been interested in fighting someone that came to Las Noches to attack them, but right now all he wanted to do was crush Ichigo Kurosaki into the ground.

"At future meetings we will further discuss this. However, at the moment we have a… more pressing matter to point our attentions toward."

The interest of the room seemed to increase a bit.

"Wouldn't you agree, Grimmjow?"

* * *

He snapped out if his "dream" and leapt forward, baring his teeth and growling as he cut the pole of the basketball hoop in half. As the solid metal cylinder parted and leaned one way, then the other, Grimmjow felt his anger build up even more and grabbed the basket as it fell and threw it, as well as the half of the pole attached to it over the walls of the surrounding apartments. Grimmjow heard the thing land on a car somewhere far away, but didn't gain any satisfaction from hearing the noise of destruction.

The enraged Arrancar quickly sheathed his katana as turned around, facing back towards the entrance to the storage hall-

-and Diva.

He made an attempt to suppress his rage, knowing that like this he could explode on anyone and anything if it said something that ticked him off.

The girl stood in the doorway of the hall, looking at him with a neutral expression.

"What?" He asked irritably, not walking towards her and the doorway.

"You're angry." She stated.

"_Gee what a brilliant deduction you're a friggin' ace, detective!" _

"Yeah, what of it?"

"I could feel it while I was sleeping. I thought you were playing."

"It's called fighting." He corrected her, not liking the words she used for things like that.

"What happened?" She inquired, not sounding concerned, typical of the emotionally retarded girl.

"Nothing. The pole ticked me off so I destroyed it. Simple as that."

"You were angry before that."

He felt a growl begin to build in his throat.

This girl was getting really close to that line between alive and messed up beyond all recognition.

"Yeah, so what?"

"You're getting very upset again. Are you afraid of talking about it?"

"_Okay, that's it." _

He flew across the court and the sidewalk, his hand pulling up the remainder of the front of her dress to lift the girl clear off the ground, glaring into her eyes. Her expression didn't falter in the least, which just ticked him off that much more.

"Listen, I'm not in a good mood. Keep your thoughts to yourself or I'll cram them _and _your teeth, down your throat."

"It doesn't hurt that much."

His eyes narrowed.

"What?"

"Having your teeth knocked out. It doesn't hurt that much, compared to other things anyway."

He sighed, moving her to the side and letting her land on the ground as he walked past her.

"Whatever. Just leave me alone." He told her, walking back into the building. The girl followed him in, trying to touch his arm.

He shrugged it off.


	21. Reservations and conditions

It was almost funny, seeing someone like Grimmjow, who had been so aggressive towards her when she went out to see how he was doing, to be growling while he was sleeping. As Diva watched the blue-haired man sleep she couldn't help but guess that he was having a nightmare. She decided whether or not to wake him up from his dream while squatted, watching him like a child watching a squirrel or something similar look around.

On the one hand he might be glad she'd woken him. He could be nice to her, maybe even _thank _her. But then on the Grimmjow side he might be angry at her and attack.

Diva shrugged.

It would be worth the risk.

She slid herself, more than walked, over to the man and touched his shoulder to wake him up. The next thing she knew something had grabbed her wrist and pulled her straight down onto a blade, feeling it press against her throat.

"What the hell do you want?" An angry voice asked her from above.

"_I guess it was the second one." _She thought.

"You were having a nightmare."

The grip on her wrist loosened.

"I woke you up."

He seemed to take a second to decide, but let her go, putting the sword back in its sheath.

"What do you care?" He asked her, not seeming to want to go back to sleep.

Diva backed away a bit and sat down.

"You were scared weren't you?" She asked, no insinuation in her tone.

He scoffed and looked away from her.

"I don't _get _scared. If it was something that bothered me I'd destroy it."

Diva smiled at him and he somehow managed to notice it, despite his gaze not having been on her.

"_What_?"

"You can be so cute sometimes."

He gave a huff and looked away again.

"Whatever."

She giggled at him, to which he just looked away more.

By the time they were "finished" she'd laughed enough for the both of them.

"You could use a kiss, I think." She thought out loud.

"Nope."

"But you're so… _serious_." She spoke, drawing closer to him.

"Look, that little charisma thing you've got going works on _kids _I'm _sure_. But it doesn't quite cut it with adults."

"Really?" She questioned, getting even closer and causing the man to move further into the corner.

"Yeah."

"Then why are you trying to get away?"

"'Cause I'm feeling more and more cornered by the second. Trust me, you do _not _want to find out what happens when a panther's in a corner."

The girl only moved right next to him, placing a hand on one of his.

"It's alright, you can let yourself go just once, I won't tell."

He glanced at her, giving her a look somewhere between infuriated and unsure.

"It's alright. I'll be gentle."

* * *

"David, what happened to you?" Saya asked him as the man came back to the hotel room they'd been staying in for the past week. He had a large black and blue mark on his forehead and looked dazed.

"I found them." He told her. His voiced sounded the same as it usually did; the damage to his skull hadn't affected the strict, to-the-point tone of his. The urgency of David's injury lessened to her. If he'd found _either _of them he must have been ridiculously lucky to have escape with such minor damage. But… he'd said-

"_Them_? You mean they were _together_?" Kai asked him, voicing the confusion and concern that all of them felt.

The blonde soldier nodded, thanking Louis as the large man came over and gave him a bag of frozen peas in a towel.

"At first I was simply searching an area where I had heard some yelling, and he sounded like the man you had described to me. When I went to investigate the area, I saw Diva walking out of a building."

Everyone, including Saya, Haji, Kai, Louis, Mao and Okamura were listening now as he sat down in a chair, relaxing his body somewhat.

"So what did you do? You didn't just run away did you?" Mao asked bluntly, her usual way. David ignored her.

"I shot her. Once in the chest and again through the shoulder. She got away for a short time and I chased after her, following the blood trail down the hall of the building."

Saya's expression tightened due to her lack of understanding. David was smarter than that; following Diva into a _building_? That was _suicide_!

"Why did you do that? You could have been killed." Saya spoke, her concern shining through her words.

"I normally wouldn't have _considered _it. But she seemed exceedingly weakened. I thought that if I could shoot her enough times perhaps I could damage her enough so that I could call you and that you would arrive before she got her strength back."

"But that man you were talking about was there and he attacked you, right?" Okamura questioned, his journalist approach was certainly effective.

"Yes. He seemed very weak as well, but he was more than strong enough to kill me if he'd wanted to."

"What do you mean?" Kai asked.

David stared out the window. It was the first attempt he'd made of avoiding a question she'd ever seen him make.

"He let me go, on certain conditions..."


	22. Decisions

I appreciate those who are still reading the story, even though it's taken so long for updates recently. I won't be able to keep this pace up for long, as I'm running out of stored-up chapters and I haven't been writing it for a while, but hopefully my proofreading the chapters, one by one, will help get me back into the mood of writing this curious story.

* * *

"I told you _no_!" He growled at her as the girl wrapped herself sensually around him.

"You want to." She stated, causing him to snarl at her.

"Oh yeah? And what the hell gave you _that _impression?"

She smiled deeper as her eyes glowed blue.

"You haven't stopped me."

His eyes went wide and she leaned in towards his face, one of her hands on his chest, the other on his cheek. The man's body began to tremble, and she noted with some satisfaction the he finally seemed to be giving in. Then hands flew up and grabbed her throat, instantly choking the air from it as she was pushed back and landed hard on the floor behind.

"You just don't _listen do you_?" He yelled at her as the girl struggled for breath, holding onto his hands as if asking him to take them from her throat.

"I act anything less than a bastard for a _second _and you're all over me! I _do _act like a bastard and you can't get _enough _of me! What the hell will it _take _for you to get a _clue_?"

She might have told him, except that her vision was fading. His hands were wrapped around her neck like two crab claws and most likely would have broken it had she not been a chiropteran. It was _her _turn to tremble, but it was more like a spasm of her nervous system than anger boiling beneath her skin.

One of her hands came away from his and reached up. He began to push it away when it touched his cheek, softly. Once again his eyes widened, as she smiled again; it held no foreshadowing of anger.

Grimmjow released her throat and backed away, soon turning to look at the wall as she gasped for breath.

"I… didn't mean to do that. Sorry." He apologized.

She smiled again, even though it couldn't be seen since she was still coughing out her breaths.

The man sighed before walking back over to her, lifting the girl up into a standing position and holding her arms out. It took a second or two, but her coughs went away just like that. Just as she was about to thank him, however, he let her go and walked back over to his place.

"Look, I don't deal with this kind of stuff very often. At _all _actually. I meant it when I said I didn't want you to do that, but I didn't mean to try and _kill _you _either_."

She didn't know whether to be glad at what he'd said or feel bad. At least he regretted trying to kill her.

"I forgive you." She stated, smiling.

He sighed again.

"How do you do stuff like that?" He asked her, looking at nothing in particular.

She tilted her head, the "question gesture" seeming to register with him.

"How do you almost get killed or badly wounded, and then act like you don't care?" He explained the question.

"I don't really care if I live or not." She stated, still smiling.

He looked up at her, something actually in his eyes resembling empathy.

"I guess with the way you've lived that makes sense."

Her smile faltered and she looked at him more deeply. Had he just… said he felt _sorry _for her?

"You mean you-"

"I guess I'm the same way, though it's not because of how I grew up or anything. It's just that when you live a life where the only way to survive is to constantly be ready to fight, regardless of the time or what shape you're in, the world seems to lose its importance; you're too busy trying to survive to even think about what it's like to live."

Diva smiled again.

"_He's here; the real man." _She thought, walking over and sitting down next to him, her back against the wall as well.

He gave her a look that showed some suspicion, but she shook her head.

"I'm not here to kiss your or anything like that." She assured him.

Grimmjow seemed to relax a bit at that.

"Why did you live that way?" She asked him.

"Didn't have much of a choice. I was in a certain state that if I didn't kill others of my kind I would return to being weak, and I wouldn't be myself anymore either. Everyone else felt the same way, and 'cause of that they were always trying to kill anything else like them that they _could_."

"You had no one to defend you?" She questioned further.

He sighed and looked over to his left, at a wall.

"I can't trust anyone. You never know if the person you trust will just tear your throat out while you're not paying attention. Even if you think they're your friend, they could just be faking it."

"Is that why you won't let me be nice to you?" She asked him.

Another sigh came from him, the man closing his eyes.

"Pretty much. Plus, even if you _do _like me, with what you told me about before you might try and kill me _anyway_."

She looked away from him, at the floor, thinking. After a few seconds he looked at her with a somewhat curious expression.

"I've got it. A promise."

"Huh?"

Diva looked at him again, directly into his eyes.

"Humans make promises, it means you'll definitely do what you say you'll do."

"Yeah, I know what a promise is, what's your point?"

"I'll promise to be stay with you and protect you, if you'll promise to stay with me and protect me."

Grimmjow looked away.

"I told you, I'm going to help you show your sister what an idiot she is, and then I'm going to fight my _own _battle."

"But if you make the promise then I'll come with you and help you when you play- fight."

He shook his head, and her smile faded.

"I've got to take care of things myself-"

"No, you _don't_."

The man looked at her, a bit apprehensive.

"You _don't _have to do things that way. You're just afraid to trust me."

Grimmjow looked away from her again, some of the irritation returning to his expression.

"You don't _want _to have anyone to rely on _do _you? You would rather do everything on your own."

He closed his eyes.

"So? What's wrong with that?"

"You'll run out of that strength eventually, it won't last forever."

"Yeah, well even _with _those guys protecting you, you're still just as alone as me." He retorted.

"What do you mean?"

"Those guys don't give half a crap about you. It's their blood. Didn't you say that chevalier thing turns them into your bodyguards? That means that their body is telling them to defend you. They don't really care about you."

Diva's expression became saddened. He'd spoken the things she'd feared were true for many years now.

"Then, why _not _make the promise?"

"You've never committed yourself to anything before, have you?"

"Well, no I haven't."

"Then why should I believe that you'll make a decision now that you'll stand by for the rest of your life?"

"If I promise to do that, I will. I've never promised anything before, but if I _did _I would do what I said."

It felt like they say there in silence for _minutes_.

"I'll think about it."

A brief smile flashed across her face. It was better than "no".

"Thank you, Grimmjow."

"Don't mention it."

* * *

"So that's how it is." David summarized.

Saya sighed.

"I guess we've got no real choice then." Kai spoke, obviously as unhappy about it as everyone else.

"I mean, the guy let David live when he could have just have killed him. If he _had _we wouldn't know where they were so it's not like he did it 'cause he was afraid of us finding out."

"At the very least, this guy seems smart. Though he doesn't sound like the animal you mentioned him being." Okamura remarked, not meaning anything bad by it.

Saya gripped her sword and stood up.

"David, please take me to where you saw them." She requested of him.

"What?" Kai asked.

"Saya, the guy let David live. At the very least we can give him a day to get better. Who knows, he might even just leave Diva there."

She shook her head.

"Diva is evil, we can't just give her a break because she's not feeling well. If we're going to do this we must seize this chance now."

"Saya…"

"_Remember_, Kai, no one good is ever around her. We have no idea why he let David live, all we know is that they're both weakened right now."

No one argued against her point of view, even though it sounded more like the order of a general who didn't have to go and fight the enemy; it was computer-like in its objectivity.

"Haji."

"If that is your wish." He spoke while walking up beside her.

"David, _please_."

He looked into Saya's eyes for a moment and then looked down.

"Alright."


	23. Out for a stroll

Grimmjow gazed at Diva as she slept. Her face looked so peaceful, as if she were a newborn baby trusting whoever it was that happened to be around with her life. The girl's breathing was silent for the most part, though whenever she took a bigger breath it sounded as if she sighed upon exhalation. Her chest raised and fell at an even rate, and had by now long pushed her hands from it, which he could only imagine had been placed there to keep herself warm. Diva had pulled her legs in for the same end, though her delicate legs had managed to stay fixed in their position. She was definitely asleep and probably defenseless.

Grimmjow stood up and picked his sword up as well while walking towards the doorway.

"Where are you going?"

He wasn't surprised. _Couldn't _be _anymore_. The Arrancar didn't even have to turn around to be able to tell that Diva was probably standing up already. He'd have thought that the observational skills all those years of hunting other Menos Grande had given him would have been enough to be able to correctly determine whether she was awake or not, but it seemed that he'd been wrong. Then again, who knew? She could have been fast asleep and somehow managed to wake up by complete coincidence as he was leaving.

"I'm hungry, I'm going to get something to eat."

"You eat human food?"

"Yeah. It's kind of a personal craving of mine. I don't need it to survive, but I have an instinct to eat meat."

"There isn't going to be any down here."

"I know that, I was going to go out and-"

She was at his side. The sudden needy action prompted him to sigh.

"I promised you I'd help you with your problem. So I will. I'm not trying to run away."

"What about that other promise?"

He looked straight forward.

"Haven't decided yet."

The girl seemed to shrink in size at his answer.

"Can I come with you?" She asked, her voice flat.

"Look, I'm going to get something to _eat_. It's not like you eat human food, right?"

"I can eat it if I want. I just don't need it."

"You'll be fine, alright? That guy said that he wouldn't bring them back here today. There's nothing for you to worry about."

"You trust him just like that?"

Grimmjow sighed again. He almost liked her more when she barely spoke and tried to kill him.

"'Course not. But at the very least he knows I'm no pushover. And he's smart; he won't help them attack us unless he thinks they can win."

"My sister only has to get her blood to enter my body to kill me." Diva informed him.

"_That's kind of an important detail, don't you think?"_

"Terrific. Well, is it the same thing the other way around?"

"Yes. But I don't know if I want to kill her quite yet."

"Well when you finish deciding what pair of shoes you want, feel free to tell me." He spoke to her, mocking the casual tone she'd mentioned everything in.

"Where are we going?" She asked him as if he'd said nothing.

He growled deep in his throat before sighing once more.

"Why would _I _know? _You're _the one who's been in this world for all this time."

"I don't live with the humans, I just eat them."

"Well, heh, have you ever thought about changing your diet? Your stupid sister might be less 'choppy' if you did."

"But some of them look so… delicious." Her voice sounded much less flat now and he could tell that this girl didn't regret her feeding at all. Then again, he didn't care either.

"Fine, I guess we'll just go looking around for something to eat then."

Diva clung to his arm and he gave her a hard look. She returned the look with a happy one and he sighed internally.

"_I guess emotionally invincible girl is back."_

They walked down the hall and he tried to pretend that the girl wasn't still on his arm.

* * *

The elevator was perfectly intact. Not a single shard of it had been damaged. It was somewhat fortunate, as if it had so much as had a _stain_ on it Amshel would have most likely destroyed the thing once he discovered Diva was gone.

James, Karl and he had discovered what had happened when he received a cell phone call about how there had been "explosions" at the main headquarters. By the time they had gotten there, everyone was gone. Nathan had pulled himself out of the street and come up top with them, but he didn't seem to know much.

"I was defeated and thrown out the window in a marvelous fashion. Where is Diva by the way?"

That had been Nathan's question when they discovered him and Amshel had almost blown his head off at the question. Nathan knew Diva was gone, and if Amshel didn't know better, he' say Nathan had _let _the man fight her. Of course, he had no proof. And unlike humans, who were quick to blame _and _to act, Amshel Goldsmith was not an un-logical man.

"What about Solomon?" He questioned Nathan, who sat in a broken chair.

"Well, he went down to fight the man first. But I believe he was knocked out of a window as well."

"Then why hasn't he contacted us yet?" James asked.

The blonde shrugged.

"Heck if I know, dear James. Don't worry, I'm certain mommy will be alright. She always finds a way to get what she wants.

"What _I_ don't understand is how they could have _both _disappeared. That man certainly didn't sound like a person who would take prisoners, and if _Diva _had defeated him I suspect he would be lying at her feet with a collar around his neck."

This was a most troubling situation. Diva was gone, and so was Solomon. Saya couldn't have been the one who did this. Neither she nor her chevalier were strong enough to do damage of this kind to the building.

The sword was gone too.

"James, go see if you can find any information on where they might have gone. Use satellites if you must, I don't care."

"Yes, big brother." The soldier responded before turning towards the elevator and walking to it with a stern gait typical of a military man.

Amshel walked over to the edge of what used to be the greenhouse and stared down at the street below in thought.

"Is something on your mind?" Karl asked him.

"They were both damaged severely."

"Yes, I thought as much. The rare smell of Diva's blood… I never would have thought someone would be able to damage her. Not without her intent."

"That man must be a great deal more powerful than we had suspected."

Karl stood behind him, not doing anything for several moments.

"What do you want _me _to do?"

The head chevalier glanced back at Karl for an instant and then looked forward.

"We have a connection with our queen. James' searching with the satellites is only a precautionary measure in case she has been taken, or gone on her own, into rural areas. If she is in the city, we will find her."

He turned around, looking back at Karl.

"We will all search for Diva separately. If she is in this city we will discover her location quickly. And then we can destroy that man, and Saya, _and _the Red Shield."

* * *

"Money? I don't _have _any money!"

"Well then, sir, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."

One of his hands flew across the counter and grabbed the stupid waiter person by the neck, lifting them up into the air.

"I want five stakes, rare! But warm! And _plenty _of those little salty potatoes!"

"F- French fries?"

"If that's what they're calllllled." He led on, making the other guy sound like an idiot.

"I'm hungry too." Diva added, still smiling normally.

Grimmjow only glanced down at her for a second before his gaze returned to the waiter who's face was changing colors regularly.

"And a small glass of red Kool Aid."

"We… don't _have_…..any…Kool Aid." He choked out.

"Then I guess you'd better _get _some then _huh_?"

"Yes… sir. At once."

He let go of the man's throat and walked past the counter with Diva beside him.

"Good. Oh yeah, one more thing."

His right hand jutted out and tore the phone from its receiver.

"No calling the police or anything like that. If I so much as _smell _someone that seems like they've been to Dunkin' Donuts recently I'll tear your head off and eat _that instead_. Got it?"

"Y- Yes, sir."

He nodded and the two continued down the aisles, people quickly looking away from them out of fear as they passed.

"Where should we sit?" She asked him idly.

"I don't care. Pick whichever place you want."

Diva obliged eagerly and ran off in a "cute" fashion, looking for the "perfect" place. She found one eventually; it was a booth. There were plenty of the exact same thing all over the restaurant and it wasn't anywhere special. There was a family trying to eat there, though their attempts had been slowed by Diva pointing at them.

"Why _there_?"

"I like this one the most."

"There's people eating there already."

"I don't care, I don't like their skin-color anyway."

His expression tightened.

"What do you mean? They're the same color as you."

The girl shook her head.

"Uh-uh! My skin's _lighter_!"

He shrugged.

"Didn't know there was a difference between Caucasians and pale white chicks but whatever." He spoke while walking over in front of the booth, not even bothering to look at any of the people seated there.

"Beat it."

They did so the first chance that they got and Grimmjow sat down on the side opposite where Diva was standing, scooping all of the plates off the table with his arm. Closing his eyes, he leaned back in the booth-

-and felt someone's tiny butt shove him further into the seat as the owner followed him in. Diva smiled at him as she sat down beside him.

"What the hell's your problem? There's another seat right there."

She shrugged.

"I like this seat better."

"Well, whatever. You'd better not try to eat any of my steaks when they get here." He told her, drinking some water from a cup which remained on the table.

"Okay, how about I get to eat your steak _later_?"

His eyes went wide and he spat out the water, coughing, as he scowled.

"You little-"

She giggled loudly before picking up the children's menu and looking through it.

"I thought you said you didn't _like _to eat human food." He spoke, still irritable over her innuendo "joke".

"I like milkshakes." She stated simply.

"…milkshakes…"

She nodded.

"Milkshakes."

He shook his head, giving up trying to understand her.

"Fine, whatever."

"Say, Grimmjow, after we go back to the room, can we do something together?"

He eyed her suspiciously.

"Like what?"

"I want to play truth or dare."

"Pffft. Yeah, right."

She set the children's menu down.

"Why not?"

"I'm not a _thirteen year old_. Besides, you'd probably pick the most raunchy thing to make me do _anyway_."

There was a quick silence.

"Are you _afraid _of playing truth or dare?"

"_Aw, hell."_

"No. Of course not."

"But it _seems _like you _are_."

"Well I'm _not_!"

Another silence followed.

"Really? I wish you could prove that."

His foot bounced up and down, the balls of his feet staying grounded, as his irritation built up.

"I guess you _are _afraid-"

"Fine! You want me to show you who's not afraid? Be my guest! Don't come crying to me when you lose though!"

Her smile showed her satisfaction as the girl flagged a reluctant nearby waiter.

"A milkshake, please."


	24. Truth or dare

"So, when are we going to play?" Diva asked him the second they got into the building.

He shook his head and walked down the hall.

"Well?"

"Shut the door behind you. The last thing I want is some punks coming in here playing that music that they like now."

"Do you mean the gangsters?"

"Teh, yeah, but they don't talk like that."

"The gangsters, do you mean?"

"That's _Yoda_."

"The gangsters that can't _handle_ the truth?"

"Jack Nicholson from 'A few good men'."

"Mesa thinks you're talking about gangsters?"

"Don't even get _started _with _Jar-jar Binks_."

Diva giggled, finally closing the door.

The Arrancar sighed and began walking down the hall again.

"I thought you didn't do human things, so how come you know about that stuff?"

"Didn't _you _live in a _demon-desert_?" She responded, still smiling.

"Yeah, fine, I'll give you that."

She giggled again.

The two walked down the hall and remained silent until they reached the doorway to "their room".

"Like the paintjob." Grimmjow remarked on how they were able to find the room due to the blood splotch on the floor.

"Thank you. I was thinking of putting it on the ceiling, but I thought the floor could use the color more."

The man entered the room and sat down near the wall, setting his sword up against his shoulder.

"You carry that thing around like a puppy." She teased while entering the room as well.

"I already told you; it's where my real power comes from. I'm not going to leave it behind like a stupid guy leaving his cell phone in a public bathroom."

The girl shrugged and sat down, though instead of positioning herself beside him she sat about a foot in _front _of him.

"What?" He asked flatly.

"I want to play."

He scoffed, and looked away.

"I thought you weren't afraid."

"Don't get started with that crap again. I'm not afraid; I just don't feel like it."

"I'll let _you _go _first_." She teased.

Grimmjow grumbled, toying with the idea.

"Fine. Which one?"

"Say 'truth-or-dare'."

He growled.

"Fine, 'truth-or-dare'?" He recited, making his displeasure as evident as possible.

"Dare."

He smirked and gave her a piercing look. For a moment, she thought he was going to dare her to mate with him. But then it flew through her mind that this was _Grimmjow_.

"And you can't dare me to stop the game."

The smirk turned into a scowl and he gave a big huff.

"Damnit!"

Diva giggled at his foiled attempt to get out of the game.

"Well?" She requested, teasing him.

"Cover your chest with your hands."

She didn't know whether to laugh or cry at that. Was that _really _all he had? Diva glanced down and saw that the very top of her breasts were exposed by the nonexistent neckline, plus from all of Grimmjow's lifting her up into the air to seem imposing. She smiled, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Truth or dare?" She asked him normally.

It only took an instant for him to respond "truth".

"Are you attracted to me?"

His eyes all-but bulged as he scowled.

"What the hell kind of question is-"

"Are you attracted to me?" She repeated, still smiling.

He gave big huff and looked away.

"Yes."

Her smile got bigger.

"Truth or dare?" He rebounded, his anger at having had to admit his attraction giving the sentence a lot of energy. She found it tasty.

"Dare."

"Punch yourself in the face!"

The girl giggled beneath her breath and her hand flew up and struck her before coming back down, taking less than half-as-second. Her bruise disappeared about as quickly.

"Truth or dare?"

There was even less hesitation this time, surely he didn't want to have to do _any _kind of dare _she _could come up with.

"Truth."

"Would you like to kiss me?"

"No."

Her head tilted a bit, but she didn't lose her smile.

"Truth or dare?"

It was spoken with irritation, but he seemed to be getting further away from being embarrassed. That wouldn't do at _all_.

"Truth." She replied.

"_Let's make it interesting." _

"Do you regret killing that kid?"

Her smile went away.

"_You… jerk!"_

The man wasn't smirking or grinning, but his eyes had a piercing look to them. He seemed to be in a very serious mood now.

"…yes."

"_Fine, if you want to be like that."_

"Truth or dare?"

She wasn't being playful anymore.

"Truth."

"Have you ever gotten the urge to mate with me?"

He understood now, as he scowled. This had gone much farther than just some game to try and find out his feelings for her.

"I don't want to answer."

She frowned and sat forward a bit.

"But it's truth-or-dare! You-"

"And I can stop _playing _anytime I _want_. I said I'd _play _the game. It's not something you finish."

"Then if you won't answer, you have to take something off."

"What?"

He didn't ask with any anger, he simply sounded fed up with it. She didn't care though.

"If you won't answer or do a dare you have to take something you're wearing off. And if it's your socks and shoes you have to take all four of them off."

Grimmjow shook his head and did so. Soon both his socks and shoes were on the floor.

"Truth or dare?" He asked, still not sounding angry.

This was weird, he'd never gotten serious like this before. She wasn't going to fall into another one of those speech-traps though.

"Dare."

"Wet yourself."

Her expression went wide.

"_What?"_

It was such an outrageous dare.

Grimmjow wouldn't make her do that to arouse himself. And he obviously didn't care about getting her undressed. She calmed down on the inside as she wondered what this was about now. It was so simple that it _must _have been Grimmjow's reasoning; he wanted to win. You don't really win in a game of truth-or-dare, since there isn't a way of scoring. Even if you give someone a ridiculous dare they still haven't "lost". But this wasn't about truth-or-dare. To Grimmjow, this was a _competition_. It had nothing to do with what he was competing over, he just wouldn't let himself lose.

She pulled off her shoes and set them on the floor.

"Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Are you afraid to trust someone?"

That actually got a bit of a reaction; his hands twitched.

He took off his shirt, but she couldn't appreciate seeing his impressive musculature. Not now.

"Truth or dare?"

Dares were too easy. There were thousands of things that she would do, and hundreds of things that she would do that others _wouldn't_. But she knew he would pick the most outrageous dares he could just to strip away that much more of her "winnings". He thought like an angry boy.

"Truth."

"Why did you kill that kid?"

Her hands tightened into fists.

_"Why must he bring that up again?"_

"I _told _you, it was-"

"Not an accident. You were lying. Tell the truth."

She took a big breath.

"I… wanted him to only be mine. I didn't want my sister to have him back. Truth…or dare?"

"Truth."

"Why are you afraid to let me get close to you?"

Another twitch came from him.

He'd already lost the "easy" things. And he only had two things left _to _lose. Grimmjow undid his belt and pulled it out, and then sat back down.

"That doesn't count."

"You didn't mention that before. It goes, if there's anything _else_ that doesn't count, say it now."

She breathed deep again.

"Truth or dare?"

"_Darnit."_

"Dare."

"Say that you're 'open legged'."

She looked down at the floor.

This was just cruel.

Diva _wasn't _going to let her beat him though.

"I'm… open legged." She spoke with a bit of hesitation.

Her willingness to say such a thing took him by surprise and she instantly shot into that opening with her own request of what he chose.

"Truth."

As much of a risk as he took with that she could just dare him to take everything off if he said dare.

"Do you care about me?"

As he began to respond, she added to it.

"At _all_?"

It made him hesitate. And at the very least she knew that this struggle of hers was not completely unaffecting him either.

"…yes."

She breathed in relief at that.

"Truth or dare?"

"...truth."

"_Can_ I trust you?"

The question shook her, and she felt herself get goose-bumps.

Diva began to pull down on the shoulders of her dress as the door to the building could be heard blowing open.


	25. Learnt from history

Saya was the first to the doorway after the door itself was blown inward and she rushed fearlessly through it as the smoke filled the hallway.

David had mentioned beforehand that the materials used in the explosive created a "fog" that would expand from where it was created to cover the whole area. This would make it harder for _them _to see, but it would also make it impossible for Diva and that _man _to spot them as _well_. And she only needed to hit _Diva once_.

Saya had already drawn her blade and her blood had been spilt onto it; the various grooves and channels expertly engraved into the blade served to keep her blood on it longer.

She had to destroy Diva this time. If she were to turn that man into a _chevalier _who _knew _how powerful he'd become? And every ounce of that strength would be focused on protecting her. As Diva's enemy, she couldn't allow that. More importantly, as someone who was responsible for all of Diva's atrocities, she couldn't allow someone else's life, no matter _whose _it was, to suffer their war. Then again, it might already be too late.

She made sure to keep her eyes concentrated in front of her, but also on the ground, since that is where the blood trail led to the room they had been staying in. Saya could only hope that they had decided to stay in that room and for that matter within this _building_.

Behind her was Haji, who had left his case behind due to the small confines of the hall. Nevertheless he was still lethal and deadly enough for that to be far from an effective handicap. Everyone else was going to cover the exits. Not that they intended to fight Diva and that man should they try and escape, but rather they would follow them so that Haji and she could catch up before they were lost again. Hopefully that would not be necessary, however. If at all possible she wanted to keep the people in danger to her and Haji though to be honest she'd rather he not be in harm's way _either_.

The blood trail ended in front of a doorway and she stomped her leg out to stop herself while turning to her right to face into the room. She was ready for _anything_, whether it be Diva, that man or nuclear _bomb_. Slowly the fog seemed to fade and she realized something. She'd been _wrong_. As the fog disappeared and Saya saw Diva lying atop the man, herself completely undressed and the man's shirt off, Saya's hands trembled on the hilt of her katana. The scene reminded her of a very familiar and eternally painful scene from just over a year ago; she'd run into a storage room meant for large containers, having heard that Diva was headed down there, when she found her sister tying a pair of shoes. Not far from her was a nude boy whose skin was made of glass. He was her brother, Riku, and Diva had killed him. And even more evil than that, she'd done _more _to him than simply murder the poor boy.

Saya blinked and now she saw Diva doing the same thing to someone _else_ and realized as her own face but with blue eyes turned to look at her that Saya had developed a deeper hatred for Diva than simply what was required for her mission.

"Diva!" She yelled, running forward with her sword bared.

The girl took heed of her and got off of the man, who wasn't moving, to avoid the horizontal slash that was coming. When the time came Saya's wrists turned and the sword sliced through the air, aiming to cut her sister in half. Yet as weak as she must have been Diva managed to duck under the attack and come up again near a set of shelves with supplies on them. Saya's sword returned to its guard stance and dipped, aiming the tip of the blade forward as she moved one leg and then the other and thrust out with her sword. Once again Diva managed to avoid her attack yet this time when her blade missed it went into a large jug of water.

Diva started to get close to her but Saya swung the sword back across and made her sister back off in fear of receiving merely a tiny scratch from her sword, a wound that would be infused with Saya's blood. However, the jug of water did not remove itself from her blade when she swung it and instead it remained steadfastly on, dripping water down the blade.

Normally this is was all but irrelevant, but with the key to destroying Diva being the blood that was on her sword it was akin to trying to shoot an old gun with wet gunpowder. Saya quickly grabbed for it and pulled the plastic jug off with some effort, but by that time it was already too late; her blood had run off the blade.

With a grin Diva leapt at her sister and managed to grab the hilt as well as Saya speedily dropped the jug of water to get both hands on her sword again. The result of both of their actions was that they were fated to struggle for control over it. For the two to be equally matched in a contest of strength Diva must have been weakened significantly _indeed_, but Saya was not one to feel pity for murderers and rapists. It remained a legitimate struggle for several moments as the two revolved around a central point, vying for control of the weapon that would enable one to spill their deadly blood onto it and finish off the other. Yet as the moments dragged on and Saya began to feel her hatred for Diva putting sweat onto her hands that were already wet with water, she knew that this contest would be over soon. Sure enough, she was right; Diva wrenched the sword free of her twin's grip and swiped it at her, forcing her sister to hop back into the shelves she'd struck before to avoid the attack. As her sister brought her hand up near the blade to cut the body part along it Saya decided that this was the best time.

"Haji!" She yelled, and the black-suited man appeared behind her nude sister, grabbing her hands and pulling them open so that her arms were fully extended.

"N- No!" She yelled, moving one of her legs to the center of her body and bending it at the knee before kicking it behind her and catching Haji in the groin. As she'd desired the man's grip loosened and she turned about, spearing the sword through him and kicking the man away before he could make any further movements. But her "streak" was at an _end_; Saya grabbed one of the multiple metal pipes that lay in storage on the shelf and gripped it with all her strength, approaching the girl who'd momentarily lost view of her.

"Diva!" She yelled, gaining the pale girl's attention just moments before the pipe smashed her sister in the side of the head, cracking her skull.

Saya's twin stumbled away, but she wasn't finished. She brought the pipe up over her head and swung it down into her sister's back, knocking her to the floor. The strike repeated itself as the girl tried to get up again. Her attempt failed, yet she tried once more. This time the end of the pipe made contact with her ribs, shattering them as Diva was knocked on her back. Saya drew up the pipe again, ignoring the blood that dripped from it, and aimed it at her sister's face. Once again it swung down, but _this _time her sister's foot shot out and kicked her in the shin. It was an extremely painful attack for her, yet the loss of balance that caused her to stumble _forward _was far more undesirable.

Her course landed her not inches from her sister as the pipe flew from her grip. Diva was the first to try and get it, but Saya pushed against her shoulders to bar her sister's progress and aid her own. But as her hand grasped through the air she felt something pull on her dress and drag the girl away from her objective. Saya kicked at her sister's face and feet, but though she scored a few hits they weren't enough to cause the pain-hardened girl to let go and her sister succeeded in dragging her back to the same spot. Her hands flew about, trying to free herself from Diva's grasp, but she was far too inexperienced with hand-to-hand combat. Diva, while probably not used to it _either_, was still more adept at it than her older twin and a swift hit from the ridge of her head was enough to stun the brown-eyed girl long enough for her sister to lunge for the pipe and gain control of it.

As the girl began to stand up, and Saya watched her do so, she realized what this would lead to should it end in Diva's favor. Not a single thing would change from what was going on before; she would still rape that man and would still end up destroying this world full of humans. More than her mission, what caused her to leap to her feet was the memory of her little brother, and the unyielding desire to keep that from happening to anyone else.

"Not again, Diva!" She yelled, bolting up to her feet and surprising her twin with her burst of energy.

"I'm not going to let you do to _anyone _else what you did to Riku!" Came a scream as her body leapt for her sister. The declaration seemed to shake the girl and gave Saya enough time to ram into her and knock the girl to the ground before she'd so much as gotten the chance to move. She closed one of her hands as tightly as she could, and her nails drew blood.

"I have to put an end to this, Diva!" She yelled once more and dove for the girl.

However, all of her determination turned into confusion when someone grabbed the same bloodied hand which had been aimed at pushing itself into Diva's face and the grip didn't allow her to move forward anymore. Her head whipped around, wanting to see who would dare stop her. But when she saw that it was the man, still shirtless, holding her wrist with a frown on her face, she was dumbfounded.

"Why-"

"Sibling fighting's fine with me; helps get stuff out of your system. But when it gets to trying to _kill _each other, that's where it ends. Plus, I'm a man of my word."

The sentences made no sense to her.

"But she was-"

"Don't make me laugh. The chick jumped on me when your little group blew their way in. And the only reason she's like that is because the stupid girl wanted to play truth-or-dare and she's got some weird rules for it." He spoke, looking at Diva for a second.

"Besides…" He began while starting to look at Saya again.

The hand drew her away from Diva and used the momentum to stumble her away into a wall.

"I've gotten quite enough of your self-righteous bullshit."


	26. Senseless

Saya stood there, unsure how to react.

She had to know that when it came to hand-to-hand she couldn't hold a _candle_ to his freakin' city of lights, and even with her _sword _it didn't matter. Plus, unless he was stupid enough to get his head cut off or something even if she _did _manage to hurt him he could always just go into his resurreccion form and heal said injuries before completely annihilating her. Even with his wounds only closed up, not healed, killing her would be as easy as killing a newborn hollow. That's what made it so difficult _not _to. If she got killed by someone "on Diva's side" that would just satisfy her little delusion of being the "hero" and even though she'd die, in a way, she'd still win. But the girl was so stupid she probably wouldn't _listen _to anything that made _sense_.

"Why do you want to kill her, anyway?" He asked flatly, like asking what she wanted for lunch.

"Because she's _evil_!"

"Says _you_. But who put _you _in charge?" He responded with the same tone, countering all of the energy that came from hers.

"She's killed innocent people! Hundreds- perhaps _thousands _of them! She treats people's emotions like they aren't worth anything and cares only about herself!"

Diva said nothing, but Grimmjow actually chuckled at those statements.

"You're _how _old again? Look, _no one_ is innocent. Not completely; _babies _whine too much and bother others. Second, at least hundreds of people die a _day_. Third, they aren't. But even if they _were _who the hell taught her _how_? It's like expecting a blind person to appreciate a fancy view. And lastly… we're _all _selfish. _Especially _you, you little turd."

Diva, despite the completely tense situation, began giggling hysterically as she stumbled away holding her stomach. _Saya _on the other hand, seemed repulsed by his statement.

"What makes you think you know _anything _about me?" She spoke, all-but gritting her teeth.

"Your kind's easy to figure out. There's people in _all _our species that are like you and you're a friggin' dime a half-dozen."

He didn't let her speak again before continuing.

"You act like you're the judge of the world; declaring who's right and who's wrong. And then you pretend like it's truth just because _you _think so. Then you go running around blaming other people for stuff that was just as much _your _fault as it was _theirs_."

"You're wron-"

"_For example_; that little kid that was your brother. Or chevalier- whatever. You blame his death completely on your _sister_. But that's not all there is to it."

Her eyes narrowed, apparently the chick didn't want to hear what he had to say.

"_Too bad."_

"Where were _you _when this was going on?"

A scowl added to her ticked off expression.

"I was searching for Diva."

"So killing her was more important to you than protecting that kid."

"That's not true!" She yelled, stepping forward.

"But it _is_. If it _wasn't _you wouldn't have _left _him _alone_."

She stepped back, and her face lost some of its hostility.

"_Looks like she can accept sense after all."_

"And it's the fault of everyone else that cared about him for not being there to help him or not being strong enough."

"You can't expect that of people! Humans aren't strong enough!"

"You _can _expect that of people, 'cause I just did. And then it's their own fault for being human."

"So they're supposed to change what they are just to become stronger?"

"If they cared about that kid enough, then yeah."

Her face was red now, and if she'd been a guy he guessed she might've tried to take a swing at him by now.

"_She will anyway. That's what we all do when we don't want to talk anymore, regardless of the __reason."_

"What you want to believe in is that things _have _to be a _certain way_. But they _don't_. That's the kind of crap green little weaklings believe and having been alive so long you've really got no excuse; sixteen-year-old body or not. Your sister still _acts _like a kid… but _you _still _think _like one."

Saya recoiled as if she'd been poked with something hot and he knew that at least _some _of this stuff'd gotten through to her.

"_Probably not enough though."_

She took a breath and closed her eyes.

"Talking isn't of any use. You may not be a chiropteran… but you're not _human either_."

His eyes narrowed.

"So?"

"So…"

Her hand stuck out and held its hand open, receiving a sword from the man behind her who quickly stepped into the comparatively small room alongside her as the girl's eyes opened; fiery red pupils glared at him. Diva began to walk up to _him _as _well_, but he held out his arm to gesture for her to stop.

"I'm more than enough for two delusional little kiddies."

"But you're still-"

"If they've got some game I'll just get more serious."

He rolled his head around his neck, cracking it he did so.

"Come on you brats."


	27. A cut above the rest

Sorry the chapter names have been so lame lately.

* * *

Both of them began to rush forward when he suddenly unsheathed the katana from its scabbard in a horizontal slice, forcing them to back off or get bisected.

Whatever usually made Diva so strong seemed to be absent in her twin, so at the very least she was smart enough to know that she wouldn't be able to match his strength.

They ran towards him again, but this time with the intention of flanking him, with Haji on his sword side to, he could only imagine, try and catch his sword should he try to attack.

"Gee, then what should I do?" He thought sarcastically, tossing the sword to his left hand and lunging at the girl with the sword across his chest.

She stamped her feet into the ground and blocked with her sword, but the power behind Grimmjow's swing was enough to blast her out of the room and likely through many others.

"Saya!"

The Arrancar spun around, his sword creating a lethal barrier from the upset chiropteran before he aimed the point forward and thrust.

Haji caught the blade but his front knee was kicked to put him off balance before Grimmjow let go of his sword and leapt forward to punch the man in the middle of the face and send him through a wall, doing the same thing to him as he'd done to Saya before spinning around and ducking, catching his sword before it could fall to the ground.

Diva was leaning back against the wall opposite the entrance and watched him with a grin.

As he stood up he sighed.

"Not very good are they?" He questioned rhetorically.

"They don't stay down. That's why they keep coming back." She responded, almost sounding amused. As if on queue from both holes in their respective walls came the attackers, charging for Grimmjow on both sides. He stepped back as if avoiding two dumb animals trying to run into him at the same time and they stopped inches from each other, Saya with her sword bared and Haji with a demonic claw.

Grimmjow aimed his free hand at them and fired a bala, instantly going after Saya when they dodged, who always seemed to be the weaker of the two when it came to avoiding things. Surprisingly she managed to hold him off for a second as their blades met, even though she was using a two-handed grip and he only a one.

"No matter how many times you cut me, I'll heal, you can't win this. Just leave and let me do what I must."

He grinned and gave a quick breath of a laugh.

"Ha. 'must'."

A second later he felt her chevalier approaching him and spun away, leaving his claw to pierce thin air.

"But then again, if you're damaged enough you get weak right? The both of you? So all I have to do is keep beating the hell out of you two and eventually you won't be able to get up, dead, alive, or whatever."

From the flash in their eyes he knew he was right.

"Plus if your head gets disintegrated by one of those attacks of mine you're dead one way or the other. There's no healing what isn't there."

Saya brought her sword to a guarded position again and ran for him.

"Enough talk!"

His smirked and swung his sword up at hers. However, she held her sword back and landed in front and below him, striking out with the blade again.

Grimmjow grabbed the blade with his bare hand and diverted it, pulling the girl towards him before bringing a knee up into her torso, at least momentarily crushing anything within it. She collapsed forward just as Haji attacked as well.

The Arrancar hopped back and struck out with his sword as if it were a lance and forced the chevalier to knock it away, giving him the opening to get inside his guard and bring his sword down.

His katana swept up like a wave and crashed into the man's arm, which he managed to block with before the attack connected. Nevertheless it still cut something and blasted him up through the ceiling, likely to the roof up above.

Saya hadn't gotten up from the floor and was still writhing in agony as her body tried to heal itself from the inside out.

Grimmjow shook his head and re-sheathed the katana.

"Let's go."

Diva walked away from her wall, towards him.

"You aren't going to kill her?"

He stared at the pathetic thing that twisted about on the floor.

"I hate killing weak people. And she's about as weak as it gets. Plus she's too stupid to accept stuff that's completely true. She's not worth killing."

"But she can still hurt me." Diva reminded him without a tone of worry.

"Yeah, I guess. But I won't let her as long as my promise stands so it doesn't really matter. We might as well get out of here. But… before we do that…"

He walked over to his shirt and picked it up, putting it back on.

"Put your friggin' dress on."

"Oh, right." She spoke, intentionally sounding like a klutz.

Grimmjow quickly did up his shirt and then put his socks and shoes back on as quickly as possible. He'd just finished tying the last knot on his shoestrings when Diva came over to him, ready to go. As she did Saya suddenly swung her arm up and cut up through Diva's middle. Grimmjow's eyes widened as he saw how deep the cut went but even more when he saw two things come out.

"What the-"

Saya's attack had been the last thing she did before losing consciousness, and both her arm and sword came down, apparently only covered with Diva's blood since her blue-eyed twin didn't seem the least bit dead. Still, the attack winded the girl who'd already been weakened earlier on, yet it didn't stop her from grabbing for the- cocoons? Two of them had fallen from the girl's belly before it healed itself up and looked as if they had been woven around 3-D ovals by a gigantic spider some hundreds of years ago. It didn't really matter though.

Yay, she was a mommy- sort of, but he didn't want to hang around and have a baby shower. He pulled on her arm to bring the girl with him as she enveloped the cocoons within her embrace.

_"Terrific. Now on top of defending a hundred-something-year-old girl that acts like a kid I've gotta baby-sit too. Things were a helluva lot simpler when this was just about killing the a-holes who kicked me out of Hueco Mundo."_


	28. Me, you, and babies too

He'd knocked down the fat dude outside with no problems and they'd left before the guy could see where they'd gone. At first he'd thought about looking for another building to go into, but after he thought about it the arrancar had decided to get them up the fire escapes of the apartment building and onto the roof. His attack had apparently launched Haji up through it, as evident from the hole that just happened to be in it, but the chiropteran was nowhere to be found. He heard them running about below, outside and in, looking for them, but most likely they all thought that the two had split. Looking for them right above their heads most likely wouldn't occur to them, and if it _did _then he could just punch them off the roof.

Diva had completely forgotten about everything but the cocoons, meanwhile, and had them lying in her lap as she sat against the stairwell's outside walls. Grimmjow didn't get close to her or them, but made sure not to be close enough to the edge of the roof that anyone would be able to see him from down below either.

When he sat down about a yard from them, looking away at the sun, he heard her walk over to him though.

"Hey, what are you doing over here?" She asked him curiously.

The man only glanced back at her to see that the cocoons still in her hands.

"I thought you wanted to look at your cocoons or something in private."

"You mean my babies?"

He sighed.

"Sure."

The girl knelt down by him and looked straight at the man's face.

"…you don't like them?"

He looked away again at nothing in particular.

"I don't care, they're not _my _kids."

"They _could _be."

Grimmjow looked at the girl again with a strange expression.

"Huh?"

"Children usually have a mother and father right? You could be their father if you'd like."

He looked away again in disinterest.

"Not interested."

It was her turn to sigh as she sat down.

"Why not? Is killing those people so important to you?"

"Of _course _it is. The bastards kicked me out of my world and left me messed up, able to be seen by weak little humans. Taking them out is a hell of a lot more important to me than babysitting your kids."

Diva looked down at them and rubbed the cocoons with an amount of affection he couldn't understand.

"What if… I helped you kill those people? _Then _would you stay with me and my babies?"

"I'm not a human. And I'm not a husband. There isn't a thing in the world that could get me to stay in the same place and do the same thing day after day."

"But it wouldn't _have _to be! We could go on a picnic, take them somewhere…"

Grimmjow said nothing for several moments as Diva looked back down at them again.

"Still not interested. Plus, you know as much about raising a kid as _I _do. You don't even know what to _do _with them."

Her head hung low in shame.

"Why did you want them so bad if you didn't know anything about raising them?"

"I'm… not sure."

Her head rose slightly as she gazed at them as if they were the most beautiful things in the world.

"Maybe I just wanted to be a mother because I never had one; I wanted to give someone something that I didn't receive myself."

Grimmjow chuckled, drawing her gaze.

"That's funny huh?" She asked, a sad smile on her face.

"No. Not that. It's just kinda ironic that your sister calls you evil when most 'evil' people would be focused on making all other children miserable 'cause of what they went through. And yet here you are trying to give something away for nothing in return."

Her smile lost some of its sadness and her gaze returned to the cocoons.

"And what do _you _gain from helping me like this?"

"I promised you I would. I don't break my promises. So I guess it keeps me from feeling like a liar."

Her eyes closed.

"I don't believe you, Grimmjow. You wouldn't have promised me to do it then, right?"

He looked away once more.

"Doesn't matter. I'm here now and that's all there is to it."

"So tell me, what are we going to do?"

"I don't know. We'll stay her 'til tomorrow. After that we can get moving again; find somewhere else to stay."

"Somewhere nicer?"

"Why? You grew up in a stone _room_, how'd your standards get so high?"

"I don't care about where _I _stay; I want my babies to be comfortable."

"They can't _think_, so they wouldn't know."

She frowned and looked at him.

"Well, it's true. Anyway you need something else to wear 'cause _that _thing…" He remarked on her dress which was fine, but for the torn-up top.

"Let's go then."

He shook his head, stilling her before she could move.

"With you as weak as you are now and dragging those things along? No way. I'll go get something, you just stay here."

"But-"

"I'm not trying to run away, alright? I just don't want to stare at a chick with a dress showing where she keeps her friggin' watermelons."

She grinned at the statement.

"So you would prefer to stare at me when I had a more complete dress on?"

"You know what I meant, I'll go get the stupid dress, you just stay here and… juggle your kids around."

"That would be mean! Oh, and get something for them to wear too."

"I'm not going clothes-shopping here. Besides I doubt they have anything in 'cocoon' size."

"Not now; for when they're _born _silly."

He sighed and shook his head.

"Whatever. Just give me your tag."

"It was made for me, there _is _no tag."

"Fine, whatever, I'll just take a guess then." He spoke while walking across the middle of the roof so he wouldn't get spotted.

"Come back." She spoke quietly beneath her breath.


	29. Grimmjow the fearsome nanny

"_Where could they have gone?" _Saya thought, standing outside the entrance to the building that the two had been in.

She'd mentally kicked herself for falling unconscious, but remembered having managed a successful attack on Diva beforehand. She doubted it had killed her sister, however, as she undoubtedly wouldn't have made it very far had that been the case.

That man was something else entirely. They were going to need something more than what they had if they were to beat him. His speed, strength and battle-prowess surpassed the chevaliers and likely even _Diva _when the girl was at full strength. Yet there was only her and Haji who could fight him, and they had already proven they were no match. She doubted he was sensitive to gunfire either, which meant that David, Kai and Louis wouldn't be able to help anymore than against chiropterans. They _couldn't _allow those two to return to full strength. If that man was actually protecting her and following Diva's will the two would be unstoppable.

She shook her head.

"_I can't think that way. There has to be a way to defeat that man or make him immobile."_

It was at that thought that she saw something flash by her vision, and it drew Saya's gaze. They were on the thruway driving back to their hotel so it could have easily been a car, but she didn't think that was it.

"_No, we're in a traffic jam. No car could drive that fast."_

She rolled down the window and stuck her head out, gazing in the direction the flash had gone. As her eyes scanned the area she spotted someone standing on top of a lamppost.

"_Chevalier? No. He looks different."_

She noted with some surprise that he was wearing a very old-style outfit of Japanese clothing, plus he had what appeared to be a large sword bound across his back and…

"_Orange hair?"_

The fact that he wasn't a chevalier and yet was looking for something from atop the lamppost told her that he definitely wasn't human.

"_Maybe another person like that man. He looks like he's searching for him."_

And from the look in his eyes, they weren't friends.

Saya check to see if any cars were coming up along the shoulder before opening the door and closing it behind her, running over to the lamp post.

The man, who she saw was a boy around the age of Kai, noticed her and seemed surprised that she could see him. She gazed up at the teenager and asked him what his name was.

* * *

"Stupid. Why do chicks have so many kinds of dresses?" He complained, going through the "teen" racks of some expensive clothing store. The various other shoppers were eyeing him with disdain as he pulled one dress off of the rack after another,

"No, too stupid. No, too ugly. No, too fat. No, too orange. Who the hell makes a… five-hundred dollar dress _orange_?"

As he continued voicing his complaints at the store's "lack" of anything good one of the employees approached him.

"Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to lea-"

"Here, hold this." He told her, shoving a dress into her hands.

"I don't wanna have to go looking for it and I'm _not _holding a dress. That stupid girl's more trouble than she's worth."

"Sir-"

"Don't you have anything that's… you know? Not stupid? All this stuff looks like it was cut from curtains or whatever."

She didn't get to say a single word as he continued to search and voice his complaints until finally, at the end of the rack, he discovered something that met his approval.

"There, that'll do it, and if she's got a problem with it that's just too bad." He thought out loud, walking past the girl who'd failed to be able to speak.

"Hey! You can't just leave with that!"

He stopped dead in his tracks and slowly turned to face her, revealing the sword in his belt in the process.

"What's that?"

"Uh…"

He stared right into her eyes and used them to burn through the pathetic girl's internal resolve in a second.

"N- nothing."

"What I _thought_." He remarked, leaving the store.

* * *

"I wonder what I'll name you." She contemplated out loud.

Diva had never really thought about _naming _them, she'd always just gotten stuck at how happy she was that they were going to be born.

"Hm… maybe _Grimmjow _will come up with something. As long as he doesn't call either of you Bruno or something like that." She joked, but they didn't laugh.

"Sorry, I guess it wasn't that funny." She apologized to the cocoons.

"Really though, what is taking that boy so long? If he were just going to get me one dress he should have been back by now."

Something clicked.

"Maybe he's getting me presents! Like a baby rattle or something! I bet he's rushing back _right now_!"

* * *

"You…have got…to be kidding me."

That's what he said when he saw how long the line was to get the clothes in this baby clothing place.

"_What'd everyone have their brats today or what?"_

The otherwise giddy or happy couples lost not just a little bit of their happiness when they saw a light-blue haired, sword-carrying man with a frustrated expression walking around the place looking for clothes for the kids.

"If those little brats have to get changed I'm gone. Seriously."

There was a child here with his parents, only about four years old, looking at the man as he picked through the tinyass little dresses wondering what the hell he was doing here.

"_I was fighting and killing things for a living. Now look at me; shopping at freakin' babies r us for __clothes for the cocoon-toddlers of a hundred-plus-year-old little kid herself."_

"Stupid pink… isn't there anything _not _in pink?"

He looked up and saw a sign that read "PINK" above the section he was in.

"Oh, duh."

"Mom, why's that guy talking to himself?" The kid asked his parents who remained quiet, staring at him like they thought he was going to blow the place up. He walked over to the section the kid was in and glanced left and right.

Green and yellow.

"Eh, what the hell."

He started to reach for one of the dresses in the green section when he realized his sword and the dress he'd already taken were in the way.

"Ehhhhhh."

His eyes caught sight of the kid and he pulled the sword out of his belt before handing it and the dress to him.

"Here, hold these for a sec, will ya?" He requested before skimming through both sections and picking out dresses that he didn't really pay attention to but looked like stuff Diva would like. When he finished Grimmjow took the sword and dress back from the kid and rubbed his head.

"Thanks."

Then he walked out of the store, ignoring the calls of the employees behind him.

"This chick is gonna have to do _something _for _me_ if this crap keeps up." He thought out loud irritably.


	30. Convergence

"Here." He told her, handing the girl the things he'd gotten.

Diva sprung up from where she'd been sitting, looking over at her cocoons for a moment.

"Grimmjow, will you please watch over my babies while I put this on?"

He sighed.

"Yeah, fine, whatever."

The girl took her dress and pulled her current one off as Grimmjow looked away at her babies. The black dress had dark-blue trim as well as a floral design done in an even darker shade of blue. She loved it, and that Grimmjow had gotten it for her meant all that much more. Diva quickly turned around again and glanced at her cocoons to make sure they were safe before sticking her arms out.

"Ta-da!" She declared.

Grimmjow eyed her like a tired person inspecting something that usually didn't hold their interest.

"Damnit. You've got no fat at _all _do you?" He questioned, causing the girl's head to tilt in curiosity.

"I thought that one would be in your size but you had to be all skinny-chick on me."

She bent over, looking down at him.

"I could try and fatten myself up if you'd like."

He shook his head and reclined against the hard cement roof.

"Nah, stay skinny. I'm going to sleep."

"So what else did you get?" She asked nicely… as if he hadn't expressed his desire to go to sleep just a moment earlier. Grimmjow sighed and kept his eyes closed as he responded.

"That, the two dresses for your kids, some beef jerky and a steak."

She eyed him suspiciously, as if waiting for him to admit to something.

"Alright I got a… magazine."

"What _kind _of magazine?"

He covered up something behind his back.

"No kind. It's, uh- blank."

"Really?" She asked with humor in her voice.

"Yeah."

The breeze blew, and she hopped on top of him, tearing the magazine from his grasp.

"Hey ya little witch! Give that back!" He complained as she held the must-be dirty magazine triumphantly over her head and prepared to make fun of him about it-"

Her eyes stared at the title.

"Hunterlicious; ten tips on how to stalk your prey without making any noise."

The man grabbed the magazine from her grasp and shoved it under his back.

"Like I said, nothing."

She shrugged, bored with the matter now,

"So why didn't you get any toys, or a rattle or something?" She asked in a tone that didn't make her sound upset.

"Look, this may tick you off but… they're balls of _silk_, okay? They aren't playing with _anything _right now. When they hatch or whatever they'll get something else but until then the 'panther delivery service' is finished."

With that he fell back down to the floor of the roof, evidently exhausted.

She frowned in thought for a few moments and then walked over to her cocoons and picked them up, bringing her babies over to him with her and laying down beside the man who had slipped into unconsciousness.

Diva smiled at him and snuggled against his sleeping body and putting her babies between them to bathe in their shared heat. As the cold wind blew across the roof she felt warm, next to Grimmjow and her children.

* * *

"Yeah, no doubt, that was Grimmjow alright." Ichigo told her.

After she'd quickly spoken to him and told the teenager that she thought she'd seen someone like him and that she wanted him to follow her back to their hotel he'd done just that, as getting David and the others to believe she'd found an invisible man that could help them most likely wouldn't have gone over very well.

"You've fought him before?" Haji asked him quietly.

It was probably a good idea, since their room wasn't behind very thick walls and Kai and the others were in the next room.

"Yeah, a few times actually. It never really ended in any kind of decision though. Every time we always got interrupted. The last time some guy showed up in a burgundy suit and took his sword and then he chased after the guy.

Saya and Haji shared a glance.

"Amshel." She explained.

"What?"

"He's one of my sister's guardians. It's difficult to explain, but basically I believe- no- I _know _that Grimmjow has joined my evil sister Diva, and we aren't powerful enough to stop him."

Ichigo stood up straight, looking down at the both of them.

"Don't worry, I'll handle Grimmjow. If he just runs free he'll destroy the whole _world _eventually."

"So we can trust you to keep him out of the way when I confront my sister?"

Ichigo nodded.

"Yeah, I'll make sure he doesn't get between you two and whatever you've got to deal with."

She smiled, and nodded appreciatively.

"Thank you, Ichigo. You're a very good person."

* * *

"I understand that. However, the blast that damaged the top floor of our building _was _technically and legally, a work-related explosion. And unless you have reason to believe someone _intentionally _blew up our upper floor which housed priceless fossils, none of which were stolen to be sold, I believe it would be in your best interests to cover the damages." He explained to the insurance representative over the phone.

Amshel Goldsmith stood on the top floor of the Cinq Fleches headquarters building, staring out across the city. Neither the view nor the phone call were particularly interesting to him. All he could think about was finding Diva and her important children that lay inside of her.

Diva had been a wonderful subject in the past years, most often not even knowing she was part of his experiments. But now it was time for her _children _to shine. However, he couldn't discover what he needed to know about them if they couldn't _find _them. And that meant finding _Diva_, who could be _anywhere _with _her _free spirit.

The representative on the phone was silenced by a few well-chosen words from Amshel as he continued to manipulate the man until he was sure the damages would be covered. As he pulled the man's strings, though, he heard another person calling his cell phone and told the man to "get it done" before "flashing" his phone to the other line.

"Amshel." James spoke in his usual tone.

"James, did you find anything?"

"As a matter of fact, we did. I spotted her and that man on a roof in the poor district of the city by using the satellites. It doesn't look like they plan on going anywhere tonight."

Amshel turned around and headed past Nathan towards the elevator.

"Another thing."

"What is it?" Amshel asked while pushing the button for the elevator.

"It seems Diva's cocoons have already come out of her stomach."

Amshel's expression tightened even more than it usually was and he stepped into the glass elevator.

"I understand. Tell me the exact address of where you found them, and tell Karl as well, then head for the building yourself. This man has had our Diva for far too long."


	31. Abandoned

Three figures hopped from rooftop to rooftop, searching for something. Or, to be more specific, two _hopped _from rooftop to rooftop and _one _of them was _carried_. It embarrassed Saya to be carried around, even more so when there was someone else with her and Haji. Yet something about this boy seemed different. It still bothered her that as Haji and Ichigo, the substitute soul reaper they had met, jumped effortlessly from one building to another, searching for Diva and "Grimmjow", that she was being carried along like a child by her chevalier. But it didn't bother her quite as much as it normally would have.

They came to a stop on the roof of a tall parking garage and Haji let Saya down to stretch her legs as the two males scanned around for their enemies.

"So what makes you think we'll be able to find them?" Saya asked curiously while stretching.

Ichigo kept looking around as he responded.

"I'm not sure. Usually I'm not very good at tracing spiritual pressure, but for some reason I can sort of feel where Grimmjow is. It's almost as if the line between his being a spirit and his being a human has… grown thinner."

It was difficult for _any _of them to search for the duo with just their eyes right now, since they had waited until nighttime before setting out, but there really hadn't been any choice; _Ichigo _may be invisible to most people but _Haji _and her _weren't_. In this case it was really choosing the lesser evil; during daytime they could see better and were more likely to be able to discover where the two were, but were likely to get spotted jumping from one building to another. While at nighttime they were much less visible and it was easier to search without drawing too much attention, but it was cripplingly difficult to spot the two. It was almost like a twisted game of hide-and-go seek and the game reference made her instantly think of Diva and her childish mind. However, she couldn't afford to become enraged right now, it wouldn't help anything.

"So, do you see anything?" She asked.

Ichigo shook his head.

"Nothing."

"Haji?"

"I don't see them."

She looked down and tried to think of a way that would be more efficient than this.

Diva tended to prefer open spaces, most likely as a result of having been locked in the tower for so long. And Ichigo told her that Grimmjow would most likely prefer a resting place up high or at least not inside. That was the only thing that gave them a half-decent chance of finding the two in this huge city; they would likely be outside and someplace high up.

"What should we do? If we just randomly search around like this then we might _never _find them. We need some sort of plan."

Ichigo stared off at nothing for a second or two and then started walking towards her.

"Saya, didn't you say you know where they were before? Let's just go there and check the place out again and then check around the area. That's a good place to start."

She thought about it for a moment and then nodded her head.

"That seems like a good idea to me. Haji?"

"Yes, that sounds like a good plan." Her chevalier agreed.

"Well alright, let's go." Ichigo spoke with an enthusiasm that contrasted the seriousness of their search.

"_It's more like a hunt."_

She shook her head to get the thoughts out of it.

They had to get going.

* * *

A wet feeling on her shoulder caused Diva to awaken, despite the midnight hour. Normally she'd have continued sleeping without a thought, but with her babies here she wanted to be more careful now. However, no enemy greeted her, but rather the feelings were a few raindrops that pattered down onto her.

Diva instantly covered up her babies as best she could, but the girl's thinness was not coming in handy for a change. As she endeavored to protect her unborn from the light sprinkle Grimmjow seemed to wake up in response to it as well. He didn't rub his eyes or anything as he sat up.

"What're you doing?" He asked like she was horsing around.

"They're getting wet, Grimmjow. Help me keep them dry."

"Or what? They'll drown in their little cocoons? The things are probably impervious to…_ whatever_. I wonder if they bounce. 'Cause if I you like playing games and stuff so much we could set up a volleyball net and everything and then spray-paint 'em yellow or something and-"

"No." She spoke seriously.

"Take it easy. I try to joke with you _once _and you go all… well, emo mother on me."

"While you're talking like this my _children _are getting _wet_."

He almost recoiled in surprise at how serious the girl sounded.

"Fine. If you're gonna be like that…" He trailed off while walking over to the stairwell's little "building" on top of the roof and yanked on the roof of the room.

"Come on ya little…"

With a wrenching noise he pulled the roof from its meager foundation and dragged it along the top of the building's walls before setting the other end down on the ground, creating a "lean-to".

"There. You happy now? He asked, kicking the baby clothes and stuff underneath the cover and sitting down, placing his back against the outside walls of the now-topless room.

She picked her babies up and ran over beneath the cover as well and set them down beside Grimmjow before sitting down herself.

"Yes. Thank you."

He scoffed, and looked away.

"What?" She asked, looking at him.

"You go from not caring about what's going on to being so finicky about whether it's starting to rain or not."

"My babies were-"

"The _cocoons _were _fine_. And it's starting to _drizzle_. They're hardly about to be blown away by a friggin' hurricane."

She frowned.

"It sound like you have something on your mind."

"As a matter of _fact_ I _do_." He responded, looking at her with a scowl.

"Then speak."

"Like I said, you changed so much in regards to what's going on with people that it was like watching an ocean dry up. You didn't care about anyone but yourself and then bam, your stomach gets cut open and there's actually something you think is _worth _caring about just because it came outta you."

She scowled as well, but it didn't deter him from speaking his thoughts.

"For all those differences you've got from all those stupid humans you're still just pathetic in one way; you're led around by your stupid DNA. Oh look, babies. I have to care about them now because their mine-"

He was cut off as a loud sound came out through the air.

Grimmjow's eyes were wide, and his face looking away from her, his cheek momentarily swollen red as she brought her open hand down.

"You went too far."

His eyes trembled for several moments.

"Alright… that's it."

A second later he burst up and knocked the roof from its perch, allowing the beginning of a rainstorm to fall down on them.

"You think I _care _whether I hurt your feelings or not? Feelings you've only got now because something fell out of you? Don't delude yourself for a _second _missy, into thinking that I care about you at _all_!"

Her scowl, despite Diva having to cover her babies herself again now, moved to an uncertain frown.

"You said you did; before-"

"Yeah, well that was before I knew the 'I'm a mommy' thing had bent you over and made you its prat. You're nothing but a pathetic, maladjusted, child_ whore!_"

She recoiled and her eyes looked up into his, wondering whether they were the eyes of the man who had spent all this time with her, or the eyes of the "panther".

"Stop."

"You can get turned to stone or _whatever _happens when your sister's blood gets in you for all _I _care. Your stupid little spiders too. Way I see it, if that stupid twin of yours is too moronic to see how much of an idiot she is my little _promise _is _void_!"

"Stop!"

"Oh I'll stop. I'm stopping right now. See ya."

"Wait-"

It didn't matter what she said; he turned away and there was a sound of displaced air. Then he was gone.

"_Just like that… he left."_

Her whole body trembled as the rain began to intensify in magnitude and she saw lightning strike down somewhere. And as she felt the water droplets beating down on her and her unborn children, Diva felt something dripping from her eyes. There was a thunderclap, and she sat up all the way.

Diva rubbed her eyes and put her babies up against the wall, covering them with the dresses he had gotten to keep them warm. After that, she stood up, and calmly turned around. Her glowing blue eyes met the fiery red ones of her sister's, as the short-haired girl drew her sword and ran her hand along it.

"_All I need to do… to keep my babies safe… is kill you."_

Once more thunder barked into the sky.

"Whether I survive that or not doesn't matter."


	32. Black and white

"_Shoulda did that sooner. Finally I can stop babysitting that little brat and go do what I want to do." _Grimmjow thought as he landed on a building's rooftop.

The arrancar glanced over his shoulder to make sure she hadn't followed him; nothing was in sight.

"_Even if she'd wanted to, she's too weak to be able to go from roof to roof."_

He turned back the way he was headed, and flinched for a second. Then he relaxed as Grimmjow saw Ichigo Kurosaki suddenly appear on the roof.

"Well, well, well. _You _came to _me_ for a change." He mused, grinning at the solemn soul reaper.

"What's the matter? Ya miss me?"

The orange-haired soul reaper looked left, then right.

"Where's that girl you were with?"

His eyes narrowed.

"Oh, I see. So you met the retardo twin."

"I'm not in the mood for your jokes, Grimmjow. Where is she?"

"What d'you care?"

"Saya said she was searching for her. And that you were with her."

"'fraid not." He spoke, closing his eyes for a moment.

Thunder clapped once in the sky as the rain began to fall harder.

His eyes opened and stared at Ichigo.

"I ditched her."

The soul reaper's expression changed to show more irritation as he grabbed the sword held to his back.

"Then I guess I've got nothing to worry about."

The instant after he drew his sword he went into bankai, and black and red flames swirled around him.

Grimmjow smirked, and drew his own katana out.

"Oh you've got something to _worry _about alright. It just doesn't look quite so pretty."

"Don't be so hard on yourself. A bit of makeup, maybe a wig… it'd go well with your _eyeliner_."

The arrancar chuckled.

"Just some marks I got from my 'family'. Not bad though, Kurosaki."

"Just one question before we do this, Grimmjow."

"What's that?"

"_Why _did you leave that girl?"

"She was holding me back. Wanted me to be _baby-sit _her."

"So you just left?"

His smirk grew bigger.

"That's right."

Ichigo closed his eyes and his grip on Zangetsu tightened.

"I see."

A second later his eyes burst open and he appeared before Grimmjow, swinging Tensa Zangetsu at him. Grimmjow blocked and grabbed the sword, drawing Ichigo forward towards his free hand that began to charge a bala. However, Ichigo kicked his feet out and pushed off of Grimmjow's chest while simultaneously gaining distance between the two and causing the bala to fire straight up into the air.

The arrancar only fell back a step and used the uneven balance he had to catapult himself forward towards the soul reaper, his sword out in front of him like a shield. Their swords clashed as Ichigo fought to defend himself against the momentum Grimmjow had built up during his trip. Before he could do so, however, Grimmjow landed on the ground and slid their swords out to the side.

His attention drawn to the moving blades, Ichigo momentarily lost sight of Grimmjow's other arm, which punched him in the lower ribs and sent him stumbling back. Before he'd so much as taken a breath, Grimmjow lunged forward once more and clashed swords with Ichigo again.

"What's _wrong _soul reaper? You're getting kicked around _too easily _tonight!"

Ichigo scowled at him and fought for control.

"I just don't understand how you could be with someone evil. You've got your problems, sure, but I never figured you were an out-and-out _villain_."

His eyes went wide for a moment, giving Ichigo the impression he was about to burst into a fit of rage. However, when emotion overtook him it was _laughter _that came out of his mouth, not a roar.

"That stupid little twit got _you too_ huh?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, Kurosaki. Are things _ever _that simple in the _real _world?"

A flash of uncertainty passed through his eyes and gave Grimmjow the chance to kick him away. As Ichigo struggled up from the ground Grimmjow pointed his katana at him.

"It's never that black and white."

* * *

"Diva!" Saya yelled as the two charged at each other.

She had no weapon herself, but what she _did _have was just as, if not _more_ useful; the maternal instincts of a female that felt her children's lives at risk.

As Saya swung her sword down Diva dove forward, tackling the girl to the ground and sending the sword from her hand. As Saya reached for it, Diva's hands closed around her throat, strangling her. For the first few moments her hands still reached for the sword's hilt, but as the seconds dragged on and she began to lose her air, they came to Diva's wrists, trying to push them away.

"You're not going to kill them, Saya!" She yelled as a shadow enveloped her from behind.

"_Darnit."_

She rolled away from them as Haji's claw thrust through the space that used to be occupied by her head.

"So that's how it is; not only do you want to kill my babies and I, but you _also _want to do it without even giving us a _chance_?"

Her sister coughed and grabbed the hilt of her sword as Haji stood between them, keeping Diva from attacking again.

"For someone who's preyed on people who were defenseless against you for so many years you sure seem eager to use the 'fight fair' excuse."

Diva stood there silently.

"I'm not here to _fight _you Diva; I'm here to _destroy _you."

"Of course you are, Saya. That's all you've _ever _wanted to do; was kill me."

Her twin stepped out past the security of her chevalier, the sword out in front of her.

"I don't _want _to destroy you! I _have _to!"

"There _are _no have-to's Saya. You just don't want to _admit _that you're more than willing to kill me. You're so deluded… I've been stuck, alone, for over a hundred years, unable to keep living… what's _your _excuse?"

Saya scowled and brought her sword back.

"Talking won't solve anything!"

A tiny smile formed on her face as her eyes gazed at the sword and then shut.

"Of course not. _Never _with _you_."

Saya lunged forward and drove her sword out, aiming for Diva's chest-

-and the sword bit through flesh, puncturing her otherwise vital organ and driving out through the girl's back.

Her sister's eyes were wide at how Diva had _allowed _herself to be run through.

"Do you feel the rain, Saya? The tears of my children as their only family try to kill each other?" Diva asked, her eyes still closed.

They opened.

"And their blood washed away as the tears pour down?"

Saya's eyes went wide once more and she tried to withdraw her sword from Diva's body. However, her twin would give her no such chance and grabbed the blade with one hand while grappling her sister's neck with the other. Diva drew the sword out of her chest and brought it back as her sister struggled to get free. Water barely hit the blade, ignoring the blood-coating that lay decorated across it as it jumped forward once more, this time going through _Saya's _chest. The girl's eyes trembled as she stared at the bloodied sword that stuck out of her, the sword that had mixed Diva's blood with hers.

"I refuse, Saya…"

The trembling eyes drew up to look into her sister's as she saw the girl's sunken expression.

"I refuse to allow you to kill my babies and I for no reason other than to satisfy your delusion. And if you won't leave us alone, then you have to die, for my _daughters' _sakes."

Diva thrust the sword into Saya all the way up to the hand guard, and let it go, allowing her sister to fall into the arms of her startled chevalier.

"Goodbye, my dear sister."


	33. Turning tide

"So, that's the whole story, huh?" Ichigo asked, thinking it over.

"That it is. A few new pages in that book Saya told you about?"

Ichigo stared directly into Grimmjow's eyes.

"Yeah. A few."

"Good, now that you know that…" He brought his sword up again.

"But if that's really how it is, then why'd you leave her?"

"I already told you; I got tired of babysitting her."

"It sounds like you were more angry that she had kids."

Grimmjow lost his grin; he was getting bored now.

"Yeah, so what?"

"They just came out of her today, right? Isn't it a bit narcissistic to expect her to be paying attention to you again when she's a brand new mother?"

"The kids aren't born yet, remember? They're just two sacs of webbed up eggs."

"But they're alive. And they can be killed."

"What do you care about it _anyway_? They're not human _or _soul reapers. So what does it matter?"

Ichigo shook his head.

"It doesn't matter whether they're human, a spirit, or a chiropteran. If someone wants to kill them when they haven't done anything wrong I'm not going to stand by and let it happen."

His grin returned and Grimmjow shrugged.

"And yet here you are, out here, fighting me for no reason."

Ichigo brought his sword up again.

"It's not for no reason."

Once again the grin vanished, and his arms lowered to his side.

"What's that mean?"

* * *

Diva walked over to her babies normally, even though she had goose-bumps all over her body. She hadn't wanted to kill her sister. But between that and letting her sister kill her _babies_, that was what she'd chosen. The girl hoped that the death wasn't very painful, and from the lack of screams, assumed it wasn't.

"_Just go to sleep Saya." _She thought.

The reason Saya's killing blow hadn't been such a thing was because the rain, as the fought, had washed all of her blood off of the sword. It didn't matter if she had special channels in the sword to make it stay in there; water washes away everything. Whether it be blood or breath. _Diva's _blood, however, had barely been exposed to the rain for a _second_, and there hadn't been enough time for the rain to save _her _as it had her younger sister.

"_She's gotten enough breaks. It's time for luck to favor you, my little darlings." _She thought affectionately as Diva reached her babies that remained covered by the now-soaked dresses.

"With auntie Saya gone you two won't have to worry about her hurting either of you, though you'd better play nice with each other and make sure not to get cut."

They still didn't answer her.

"What's wrong? Are you upset with mommy?"

The cocoons pulsed, and she smiled.

"No, not my little dears… you'll _never _be angry with me."

She was ready to live a different life; a life without "chiropterans" or "humans" or anything else like that. Diva wanted to live a happy life with her daughters- she wanted to live a _happy life_. That was all. And now she would be able to do that. It was her dream finally made a reality. So it was no small matter when she heard Saya pull the sword from her chest and stand up again. Diva quickly reeled around, moving several feet in front of her babies to keep them out of harms way.

Saya looked about as surprised as _she felt_, but that didn't seem to stop her from wanting to kill her sister.

Her blue eyes trembled as she stared at her sword-wielding sister.

"W- Why?" She spoke under her break, the question more to herself than to anyone else.

"Why won't you- why won't you just _die_?" She screamed at Saya, taking the girl by surprise.

"My blood kills you! That's how it works! So why aren't you _dead _yet, Saya?"

Her blood had been on the blade. Her blood had been on the blade when she thrust it _into _her; a layer of crystal-like substance that coated the entire blade proved that. It was the result of their blood mixing and crystallizing. Yet here she was, standing and completely healthy. But why?

"Why is it always like this? _You _always get all of the breaks; the world's love. While _I_… get it's sorrow…" She trailed off, her eyes filled with sadness.

"Diva…"

"_You _lived a happy, love-filled life. You were free to wander the huge grounds of the estate on which we lived. _I _was trapped in a _tower_; I felt no happiness, received no love, and was treated like I barely existed."

Her hands tightened into fists as she reminisced about the past; it was the first time she'd truly done so.

"_You _had people who cared about you to show you how you're supposed to do this and that, and to protect you whenever your feelings were hurt or someone was angry at you. _I _was locked in a _cage_, uneducated, not taught about all of the different rules and feelings of humans, and, more importantly, with _no one_ to care about me."

Diva's blood boiled and she felt a new source of energy overcome her as her long-dormant emotions rose to the surface.

"You let me out and told me you would love and take care of me! And when I next saw you all you wanted to do was _kill_ me! For being 'evil'! But you _forgot _Saya! Was it not _you _who _abandoned _me to go out into the world _alone_?"

Her twin took a step back at the emotional assault.

"All these years you've called me evil and tried to banish me from the world, but in all those years did you ever _once _consider maybe I'm not _bad_? Maybe I'm just… unlucky…"

Diva's head fell down once again as the energy receded. As the strength faded, tears welled up to the surface.

"I hate you Saya. I hate how you're always in the light, damning me for not knowing _how_ to get out of the dark. And this is going to end _tonight_."

The girl felt her anger burst to the surface and she ran at her sister like berserker.

"I don't care if I _do _die! I'm not going to let you kill my children, Saya! Not even if I have to tear your heart from its chest and devour it!"

Her sister made no moves; she was completely stunned. Diva felt no happiness at that, however, and was completely focused on one thing; killing Saya. Haji stepped in-between them when he realized Saya was too shocked to move, causing her infuriated sister to scowl.

"Out of my way!" She yelled, not deterred in the least.

He didn't budge though. Not even as four shapes glided their blue forms onto the roof behind her. The girl hadn't felt their presence, and was stopped in her tracks when she suddenly sensed four of her chevaliers now standing at her side like knights. Yet… she didn't know what the feeling was, but it felt like they were knights in black armor.

"My chevaliers…" She spoke.

"Don't you worry now, Diva dear. We won't let them touch a hair on your perfect little head." Nathan reassured her.

"It's time that we finished Saya off and were done with her." James added.

"But… my blood didn't kill her."

Amshel stepped forward, and looked at Haji as if he were a bug.

"Most likely due to the birth of your children. Your blood purity must have been passed on to them."

"But- how did you know they were-"

"We used a satellite to track where you were and saw them on the roof with you."

"Oh."

His gaze changed to look at her. It was strange, the look in his eyes didn't change.

"Where are your children, Diva?"

"They are right over there, by that little building. Why?"

"We need to observe them as soon as possible and learn whatever we can."

"_Observe_? But why-"

Images flashed through her mind. Thoughts, sounds, feelings, smells, loneliness, sadness, despair… all of the things she had felt and experienced throughout the uncalled for incarceration in that tower all those years ago suddenly all came back to her.

"But they're my _babies_. You can't just use them like experiments."

"We can impregnate them as well, after that we will be able to return them to you."

"But that could take _forever_, and with how young they are they might not know-"

"You were young during _our _first 'experiment' weren't you?"

That experience still jarred her senses. It had been the only time she fought back against him whenever he tried to experiment on her. She didn't want her babies to go through that.

"Amshel, I don't _want _you to experiment on them or with them. I just want to live with them and be happy."

His gaze returned to "their enemies".

"I'm afraid that it's necessary." He spoke in an unapologetic tone.

"You can't-"

"Diva, you do not know how to be a mother. You did not have one either, and yet here you are."

His voice was so cold and machine-like. Why she hadn't seen this in him before now was completely beyond her. Yes, here she was. And she loathed her life. She wouldn't have even wish it on those who had forced it on her.

"Amshel, my children are _mine_, and mine alone."

"Is that so? That's a pity."

Her eyebrows drew together in confusion.

"Then again. Since you are now incapable of either killing Saya or producing more children…"

"_No-"_

"I'm afraid you're simply no more use to us."

"What do you mean?"

"Now that your blood's purity has been passed on to your children, we no longer have an urging to help you. To us, you are now nothing more than a pathetic child."

Her hands tightened back into fists.

"_Amshel_-"

Whatever she had to say was cut off as a hand plunged through her chest and thrust out the back of it. It might have hurt, had it not disconnected her spinal cord in the process. The burgundy-colored arm lifted her up into the air, allowing the girl to glare at him with her dull blue eyes.

"Do not worry. This won't kill you. Not this _alone _anyway."

Her whole body trembled as blood built up in her lungs. She spat all the blood she could muster into his face, leaving it to be washed away by the rain into the rest of his burgundy suit.

"How rude; typical of a beast raised in a secluded tower."

She got no more chances to respond before his hand threw her back away from both groups. Diva landed on her back but was rolled over by the momentum as she crashed into the wall her babies had been set near. Diva crawled over to them and scratched against the concrete as she grasped for her unborn children. As her hands reached them she pulled them tight to her chest, as her lifeblood continued to spill onto the ground.

"How could you do that to her? Wasn't she your queen?" Saya yelled.

Amshel set his arm back down at his side and allowed the rain to wash the remainder of her blood away.

"For someone who was intent on killing her before we arrived you seem awfully protective of her _now_."

Saya backed up, Haji between the chevaliers and his master. He stood fearlessly before them, but surely knew that it was impossible for just the two of them to fight four full-strength chevaliers and win.

"Though I suppose she may still serve some use as a lab rat once again. Having been compelled by my blood to care for her all these years I would thoroughly enjoy showing that little girl her insides once more."

"You're sick!" Saya spat.

Amshel Goldsmith grinned as he took a step towards them.

Something flew downward, colliding with the floor between them and exploding, the combination of chemicals and water creating a smokescreen that momentarily rendered all of the people there blind. As they all struggled to see a figure materialized behind the chevalier and began walking towards both groups.

"So… this is what it looks like when you get a buncha bats together." A man mused as the "smoke" cleared.

"Strange, I'd have thought it would look a bit more impressive." The blue-haired man finished, his katana propped over his shoulder.

"I could care less about that girl, but fighting all six of you sounds like it'd be a real blast. Mind if I join in?"


	34. The hard grind

"You think you can defeat everyone here, do you?" The dude with the goatee asked him.

"Ha, I'm gonna do _more _than just _defeat _you; I'm gonna crush you and pulverize your stupid asses into the ground."

"And what is it that makes you believe you can do that? You're wounded, and it is one of you against the four of us."

Grimmjow took a step forward, tapping the back of his sword against his shoulder as if in thought.

"Huh, I'd have thought you were one of those loser science types, but you can't even seem to _count_. I said I was gonna fight all _six _of you. And how do I know I'm gonna win? Well, that's just a matter of fact."

"Really?"

Grimmjow's eyes narrowed.

"Yeah. Really."

"I see. Well then, Karl, James, teach this fool the extent of his abilities."

He smirked as the two disappeared in blue mirages.

"Think that's gonna do it, do ya boys? I've seen that little trick more than once, you know."

They came at him from both sides, but he simply hopped back out of their striking range. Karl dove forward, his arm turning into a large, dark-green claw from which he shot crimson spikes at the blue-haired arrancar. Grimmjow dodged one of them, blocked another, and struck the other out of the air with his bare hands as James came in after Karl and transformed one of _his _arm into a thick-skinned, invincible reptilian-like appendage which he swung at Grimmjow with. He blocked with his sword but nevertheless was knocked away a few feet as more spikes flew threw the air at him. Grimmjow smirked and fired a bala at the nearest one and the resulting blast disintegrated a large number of them, only allowing a single one through. He grabbed the spike out of the air and threw it at Karl before jumping up in the air and swinging down as hard as he could with his sword, the blade colliding with James' hardened arm. Sparks scattered out from the collision and he noted that the skin would have to be _really _hard for his sword to not just pass through it. Still, it didn't matter. Grimmjow grabbed the arm with his other hand and pulled it out of the way, allowing for a clean cut. But as the sword descended towards his form the man's skin changed and flew out, hardening into a hide made of the same material as his arm. At the same time his entire body changed and grew much more monstrous in appearance as he grew to resemble a large, reptilian troll with red eyes.

"Well, now, isn't that special?" He asked rhetorically as another form charged at him. It was the transformed Karl, as evident by his arms looking much the same, though he was thinner than James and his skin looked less like granite and more like that of a dark-blue snake.

Grimmjow threw his sword behind him and aimed both hands at the different targets, firing a salvo of balas to stall them before whipping around and grabbing his sword's hilt and landing on the ground. He held it in front of him to block against any attacks as crimson energy charged up in front of the other hand, gathering power for a cero.

The two chiropterans burst from the energy cloud and charged at him, with James drawing out in front to absorb the blunt of the impact of Grimmjow's attack.

"Don't care _how _strong that skin of yours is, man, it's no match for a cero."

Karl fired a spike at him from behind James and Grimmjow fired the cero just as the spike reached him, annihilating the comparatively flimsy little projectile and blasting through the air, crackling it as the energy fought the oxygen in the atmosphere and blazed forward. The two were smart enough to realize it would completely destroy them, and dove out of the way. However, to his benefit and their misfortune, the two had dove in separate directions.

Grimmjow's smirked widened and he used sonido to get close to the "tank"; James.

Growling out, he dragged his katana along the man's rock-hard skin, scraping a deep groove in it but causing no real damage. An instant after his attack an onslaught of red spikes jutted towards him and forced Grimmjow to back off-

-right into the arms of another one of these things.

The arms closed in around him and felt like they were _intended _for capturing prey and holding them still as the blade in the bent forearms sliced into them; they were like those of a praying mantis. It was rather difficult to see anything else about the creature as it hooked its arms around him from behind. Almost as if on queue, both James and Karl rushed their transformed bodies towards him and his captor and forced Grimmjow to think quickly. These guys healed ridiculously fast, so it wouldn't surprise him if the two attacked with all they had and just helped whoever had grabbed him get back together afterwards. Grimmjow pushed at the claw-like appendages, trying to loosen them as the other two gained ground quickly despite their size.

"No use trying to escape, dear. I've got you good." Came a much-less-girly voice than he'd heard back at the building before throwing the girl-man off of it.

"_You've gotta be kidding me. Get caught and killed by you?"_

Grimmjow had no intentions of prying the arms open all the way and then escaping. No, all _he _needed to do was wrench them open _enough _so that he could gather strength in his feet and jump out of the chevalier's clutches as his comrades almost rammed into him. In mid-air Grimmjow fired off a quick cero to attack both the concentrated group of chiropterans as well as the roof beneath their feet as he used sonido to dash away from the scene, and towards the only chevalier that had neither transformed nor come to attack him; the jerk with the goatee.

As he sailed downward through the air towards the man he knew the guy could tell where he was, but that wouldn't change anything. Grimmjow fired a bala at him just to see how he'd react and it collided into something in mid-air. The blast was harmless but made it completely impossible to see what was on the other side. When the energy dissipated the man was facing him, his eyes glowing red.

"So _that's _why everyone's obsessed with Diva and her kids; she's the only one in your whole bunch _without _stupid, red eyes." He mused while landing.

The man, Amshel, gave no response.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

Still nothing.

"Fine. If you don't want to talk, don't talk. Makes no difference to me; you'll die either way."

Grimmjow twisted around and then swung his body in a horizontal arc towards him, making himself a whirlwind of slashes as he swung his sword. The ultra-fast slice didn't seem to catch Amshel off-guard, however, and he blocked the attack with his bare hand. Smirking, Grimmjow spun around in mid-air and slashed the opposite way. Once again the man blocked but this time he was met by a bala as well. Regardless of how quickly they could heal, if they got their _heads_ blown off he suspected that was all there was to it. As a result of this Amshel stole himself away from the blast and gained several feet of distance between the two. Grimmjow followed the man's path and aimed his free hand at him again, ready to blow him into oblivion. He saw the chiropteran run in front of Diva-

-and his sword closed the distance between them in one long swipe.

Amshel took an extra quick jump forward and finished his travels by turning back to face the arrancar, a grin on his face.

"What's so funny?"

"Oh I think you know. The 'heartless fighter' sacrificing a possibly killing blow in exchange for one girl's life is just so hypocritical."

"Balas go straight, idiot. I was more likely to hit you with something that swing horizontally."

"If that is what you choose to believe, then so be it."

"Ha! Don't act all high-and-mighty! All your stupid little 'brothers' are checking to see if their butts are still attached down on floor one and you haven't even managed to make me _dodge _yet."

"Perhaps… at least half of that statement is true."

Grimmjow's eyes narrowed and he frowned.

"That so? Which half?"

Amshel stared straight at him as a ring of spikes shot up around him from the floor below, giving Grimmjow only one option; he had to jump. Yet when he did so a large, iron-skinned chiropteran was waiting for him and slammed one of its tree-trunk-thick arms into him, sending the arrancar with a crushed ribcage down to the floor, cracking the cement in the process. He breathed hard while struggling to get up, only to see the same smug scientist as before standing over him.

"The second half… so far."

The second after he spoke the sentence what appeared to be a sphere of air, much like Solomon's "slices" blasted towards him and forced the arrancar to roll away. However, he was on the ropes now and they weren't about to let him off of them. Nathan's claws pierced down to either of Grimmjow's sides, with his body covering up a third and an approaching Karl closing up the last one. Grimmjow used his sonido to escape just as one of the spikes flew through where his heart used to be. A moment later Grimmjow reappeared well out of their range by the small building that stood out of the roof.

He gripped his sword tightly, trying to ignore the pain coming from his entire side of crushed ribs, as the chevaliers closed in on him. That Saya chick and her manservant hadn't entered the fight and he could only guess that they were waiting for some time to sneak in a lethal attack while he'd kept them busy. But Grimmjow Jeagerjaques wasn't a diversion. He was going to _crush _them _all_. That was the feeling in his heart as he prepared to launch himself fearlessly back into battle. However, when a weak hand grabbed his ankle from behind it stalled him.

The scowl that had grown onto his face lessened into a frown as he noted that Diva was still awake, despite the fact her wound had just barely started to heal itself.

"It's alright… you don't have to fight anymore." She spoke breathlessly.

He scoffed at the girl's attempt to reassure him.

"I'm fighting them for _myself_. It's not to protect you or anything."

"You didn't attack when you thought it might hit me." She stated with a flat tone as she apparently struggled to remain conscious.

"Whatever."

She managed a tired smile while tightening her grip on his ankle.

"Could I ask you to do one more thing for me? My babies… please just take them somewhere good where they can grow up happily. That's all I want. I'll keep them from following you for as long as I can."

"Pah! By doing _what_? _Bleeding _on them?"

Her grip loosened as despair began to overtake her.

"That's all I want. Please… As it is now my babies will end up becoming like me one day. I want them to be happy."

"Baby this, baby that. You're like a broken record ever since you had those kids, you know that?"

Diva let go of Grimmjow's ankle, seeming to reluctantly accept that he wouldn't help.

"I never said I'd protect your kids in any way."

She dropped her head down to the ground and began to fade into unconsciousness.

"But, I think there _is _a way to show that idiotic sister of yours that you don't want to take over the world or whatever. And that way's by messing up all of these disloyal little servants of yours." He remarked as the group began to coalesce on them, and Diva's head rose somewhat to look at him.

"…thank you…"

"Just go to sleep already. And wake up afterward. If you make me break my promise by dying so easily I'll be pissed."

She smiled once more before setting her head down again, her eyes closing as she fell to sleep.

"Now, for you four." He spoke while focusing his attention on the chevaliers again.

"Oh, I thought you were going to fight all _six _of the people on this roof. Have you lowered your expectations?" Amshel goaded.

"Not in the least, jerkwad. I'm just gonna take care of you guys _first_!"

The man's eyebrows rose in amusement.

"Is that so? And how do you plan on doing that?"

Grimmjow smirked, aiming his sword behind him and placing his free hand on its blade.

"Like _this_… **Grind! Pantera!**" He roared as the area was enveloped in blue energy.


	35. Pantera

The bright blue energy ravaged the atmosphere as it threatened anything that grew near it; defending its owner as his transformation completed.

His ears became more like that of a feline as his hair extended into a long blue mane and his normal clothes were replaced by a skin-tight suit of armor and both his hands and feet changed into paws with razor-sharp claws on them. The jawbone of his old mask that usually remained on his face had vanished, as if they had become his now animal-like teeth. His hollow hole was completely visible now, and surprised everyone that saw it even if they showed no signs of it. A long, thin tail covered with the same "armor" his suit consisted of twitched as the blue energy dissipated.

All of his wounds, including the ones that had been closed up but not healed, were completely gone now, and no longer threatened his indomitable fighting spirit as the arrancar smirked.

"So what do you think _now _chevalier?" He asked with an almost humorous tone.

Amshel didn't show any signs of being intimidated, but then again, whether he _showed _it or not didn't mean he _wasn't_. And regardless; not being intimidated didn't mean he was strong enough to win, it just meant he was too stupid to realize he was about to lose.

"That's an impressive transformation… but I don't see how you think growing claws on your hands and feet will enable you to win."

Grimmjow chuckled at the statement.

"You'll see."

The other chevaliers began to step forward when suddenly his torso leaned forward as if he were going to throw up. Sensing that they had an opportunity to attack, the three transformed chevaliers leaped towards him. But when his upper body lurched upward and a thunderous roar emanated from his throat, sending sound waves across the area, they stopped quickly enough. The roar left his throat, leaving only a beastly growl behind, as he leaped forward and punched Nathan off of the roof in a single strike. As the other two realized what had just happened Grimmjow's elbow aimed at James' iron-skin and green "darts" fired from it, putting cracks into it and launching _him _off the building as _well_.

"You're strong, but you're too big of a target. And if something strong enough hits you it doesn't matter whether you're hurt or not; you're still pushed out of the fight." He stated analytically, contrasting his sudden vicious attack on them.

"And _you_…" He began as Karl aimed one of his arms at the man and a crimson spike jutted from an opening in his hand-

-Grimmjow caught it with a hand as the projectile shot at the speed of sound across the few feet that separated them.

"That attack can only go straight. And you can't use your hands for balance or anything as you move while using it, so it doesn't really matter if you can fire it quickly or not; you won't be able to keep up with anyone who's even decently fast. That's if the person's weak enough that they can't just _catch_ it."

The chevalier seemed stunned by the declaration for a moment, as well as the display of Grimmjow's ability to grab the spikes out of mid-air, but soon aimed his other arm at the man, beginning to fire another one. Almost at the same time Grimmjow plunged the spike he'd grabbed into the "firing slit" in the chiropteran's hand, effectively stopping the attack. Before Karl could so much as gasp Grimmjow grabbed both of his wrists and rolled backwards, kicking him straight up into the air several yards. He brought his legs back over his head and then flipped forward, pushing off with his shoulders and hands to get himself into a standing position as the chevalier began to descend.

Grimmjow leaned down, as if trying to reach the side of his ankle with one of his hands, before spinning up into the air and revolving his body around until one of his feet kicked the chevalier half a mile away and, needless to say, _also _off of the roof. At such a display of power and battle prowess even the burgundy-suited man's smug expression couldn't withstand showing a few cracks of apprehension as the arrancar touched down on the roof again and smirked at the scientist.

"So, how do you like my little transformation _now_?"

It took a moment for him to respond.

"Knowing your opponent's attacks and being able to quickly counter them is an essential tool in battle. They did not know how much your abilities had increased, not to mention you had caught them off-guard."

Grimmjow chuckled before fixing his eyes on the chevalier again.

"So in other words, you think the only reason I bashed them all off of the roof in about ten seconds flat is because I got the _drop _on them? I thought you were supposed to be one of those analytical jerks that always says something cold and logical. Yet your reasoning sounds pretty _stupid _to _me_."

"A chevalier's strength depends on how old they are, due to them realizing more of their abilities."

"And let me guess; you're the oldest, right?"

A grin crept onto the man's face before Amshel disappeared without a trace.

He lost the smirk as suddenly something reappeared behind him.

"You're very perceptive."

A hand dove for the back of his neck, aiming to rip the arrancar's spine out. However, on its way to its destination the hand was caught by a black, clawed one, and his smirk came back.

"Psyche."

Grimmjow pulled his arm over his shoulder and tossed the chevalier across the roof.

He, unlike the others, managed to keep himself from hurtling off of the roof. But it didn't change the fact that he hadn't caused any damage. And Grimmjow was just getting started with him.

"We need those children in order to make our dream a reality." Amshel explained, walking away from the edge of the roof and back towards Grimmjow calmly.

"And what dream would that be?"

"A world filled with chiropterans; a world beyond the petty morals and laws of human beings."

Grimmjow closed his eyes but kept his guard up as he rose a clawed hand into the air.

"Sounds good. Too bad that if the dream got made up by someone like _you _it probably wouldn't end _there_."

The suited man's steps ceased, and they were back at their starting positions.

Grimmjow opened his eyes as he tightened the raised hand into a fist.

"The humans are messed up. But then again, what species _isn't _in one way or another?"

"Quite a deep examination… for someone who prefers to think and talk with his fists."

"What can I say? I'd rather beat the hell out of someone I don't like than spend hours trying to convince him of something he'll never believe _anyway_."

Amshel's eyes drifted to the cocoons that Diva's unconscious body still held fast to like a set of vice-grips.

"But your kind fights against _another_… _doesn't _it?" Amshel questioned, momentarily lessening the grin on Grimmjow's face.

"Yeah, what about it?"

"I'm sure that as powerful as you are, you must be quite high on their list of enemies to kill."

He chuckled at the irony of the sentence he was about to speak.

"Pretty much; I'm in the top ten at least."

Amshel smirked.

"Then I wonder what would happen if the leaders of the group that your kind fights against were to discover your whereabouts."

Grimmjow frowned as the man suddenly disappeared.

"_So that's how you're gonna play it, huh? Cold bastard."_

He hadn't thought those words ten seconds before he saw Saya and Haji materialize from behind an aged chimney of the building. It most likely hadn't been used in decades, but the thing had apparently been intact enough to hide behind.

"You two wanna go? Or are you going to run away?"

Neither of them looked particularly aggressive, but that was only an uncommon thing in _Saya's _case; the guy looked as passive as he had when trying to stab him in the face with his claw hand a few hours ago.

"I can't simply walk away and leave Diva here." She spoke.

Grimmjow chuckled.

"More stupid talk, huh? Fine. Bring it."

"Hold on, Grimmjow." He heard a familiar voice say from behind him.

Kurosaki appeared next to him, back in his normal state.

"There's no need for anyone else to fight."

Saya seemed surprised at his decision to not allow the situation to escalate.

"But Ichigo-"

"Saya… you should have told me the whole story of what's going on."

A look of shame flashed across her face as she looked away from him slightly.

"I'm sorry… I didn't know if you would help us otherwise…"

"I'm not sure exactly what Grimmjow's position is on this, but I can understand one of his points; if you're doing this to help others then why are you lying to people just to get a desired result? That doesn't sound like something you would do."

Her look of shame grew deeper as she looked further away.

"I know. But please understand; if Diva's children live to grow I won't be able to stop them if they end up like her. I have to sleep for many years before I'm allowed to be active, and in that time they could wreak far too much havoc."

"But you don't _know _that they _will_."

"I can't afford to take the chance!"

"So you'll just _kill _them to be _safe_? What kind of solution is _that_?"

The brat had no response to that, and both of them calmed down.

"Saya, I can understand what it's like to know that you can't protect everyone. And also to do something you would rather not do so you can protect those that you care about. But there _is _another solution to killing them and just letting them go free."

Her gaze returned to him, showing a sign of interest.

"If it meant that her children would have be safe I'm sure she would be willing to find a way to keep on living _other _than feeding on living, breathing people. I mean… _you _do _right_?"

It took her a few moments to give any response but eventually she nodded her head.

"Grimmjow, what do you think?"

The arrancar scoffed and released his form, allowing the transformation to dissipate and return him to his original state, minus the wounds, and for his sword to rematerialize in his right hand before being quickly sheathed into its scabbard.

"Whatever. Do what you want. Don't whine though if she turns out to not follow your little rules; she isn't exactly an _accountant_ in terms of personality when it comes to following orders."

Ichigo nodded, not deterred in the least.

"What do you say, Saya?"

The girl seemed to be in deep thought thinking it over for a minute until she eventually gave a nod.

"Okay, we could try it."

Ichigo nodded again.

"Let's give them a day though before we try to get all over them though. Grimmjow, could you guarantee you two won't be going anywhere?"

The arrancar sighed.

"You're asking a lot, Kurosaki. I'm not gonna speak for the chick or her kiddies, but I _hate _being tied down to one place."

"You've got a mission to accomplish, right?"

Grimmjow looked directly into Ichigo's eyes, as if scanning for something.

"If you help this thing go through I promise to help you find a way to get back to Hueco Mundo… and to try and help you figure out why regular people can see you."

He mulled it over for a minute.

"Done."

Ichigo nodded once more and returned his gaze to Saya.

"Alright. I think we're set."

"You're sure?" Saya asked, unsure herself.

"Trust me, he may be vicious and rude, but I doubt there're many people more honest than him."

Grimmjow scoffed off the compliment and walked away to lift the "roof" back up to where it had been before.

"We'll be here when you get back. But don't come here to fight or I'll take you out this time."

"See? He's not going anywhere." Ichigo reassured her, ignoring his second sentence.

There was another slow nod from Saya a few moments later before Haji leaned over and pulled one of her arms around his neck and held her waist; they prepared to leave.

"See you later, Grimmjow." Ichigo said.

The arrancar walked away from the soul reaper and stuck a hand in the air, opening it in a "goodbye" gesture.

"Later."

He heard Haji leap off the building, and then Ichigo use the soul reaper equivalent of sonido, Shunpo, to follow after them.

Grimmjow noted, with some irony, that the rain had stopped.


End file.
